Happy Memorial Day and a 5K

A day that means a lot to my family and I. Without our courages young American soldiers and their heroic act of storming the beaches in Normandy...there is a good chance I would not be sitting here blogging today.

My gratitude is forever yours. Thank you.

Quick 5K this morning. Felt good to get a run in before next Sunday's mini triathlon.
It was a beautiful morning and a nice course in one of our local parks.
I felt solid running today. That's me in the white shirt just coming through the finish line (24.43. came in 4th in my age group) Ran in my Nike Free's.

Cod Loin Filet

You don't need a whole bunch of ingredients to make an extrememly tasty dish.

Cod loin filet sprinkled with some red pepper flakes, seas salt, toasted sesame oil, soy sauce and some garlic chili sauce.(for the portion of fish you see, only use 1 tbsp soy and sesame oil. 1 teaspoon chili sauce).

On some tin foil on the grill or you can make it in the oven also. Watch it closely, don't overcook it. About 1 minute before it's done, put a little pat of butter on top of the filet. (ignore the kikkoman soy sauce, it's not good at all, but it's all I had as back up. Buy the wheat free tamari, it's much much better tasting and better for you)

Some cucumber and scallion salad to go along for a cool fresh bite contrasting the spicyness of the fish.

An attempt at a close up.....

A nice full plate. Also 2 large grilled asparagus.

This was the first meal of the day around 12:30.

The tin foil method below. I sometimes make shrimp like this also.

The weather is gorgeous here today, about 90 degrees with that nice breeze through the palm trees. Perfect for some outside play.

I still get crap for not eating crap.....and.....some fishy advice

Sad but true. People actually give me a hard time for not eating the "crap" they eat, and like to let me know all about the "crap" I eat.

Yesterday I did a little shopping at Whole Foods and ran into a personal trainer I know from the gym I go to.
As he saw the contents of my cart (2 packs of butter, bacon, fish, grass fed beef, lamb sausage, heavy cream, full fat greek yogurt, olives,  asparagus, garlic) he couldn't help but give me a disaproving glance. I wasn't going to say anything, but he started it ;-)  I will call him PT.

PT; "oh...you on Atkins?"
Me; "No, I'm hungry, and I know I shouldn't be shopping hungry, cause I always end up buying the bad for me foods"   PT not too bright and quickly comes back with;
PT; "you know... if you eat 6 small meals a day, you won't go hungry"
Me; "I haven't eaten since last evening's dinner, and I worked out this morning, I just want to go home and eat" PT now a little irritated and confused, decides to fall back on a bit of ball busting.
PT; "What's up with those "water shoes" (vff)? I see you wear those in the gym, do you swim or something?
Me; "I'm actually just learning how to swim"
PT; "huh?" (with a face to match the huh?)
Me; "I mean I can swim, but I'm learning HOW to swim properly, for a mini triathlon 2 weeks from now. It's a program called "total immersion" have you heard of it?"
PT; "No. but if you keep eating like that (points to cart), you're going have a heart attack soon"
PT chuckles (cause he got the last quality comment of the conversation in) and gives me a wink, and moves on.

I went home and made a delicious cod loin filet on the grill with melted butter. A garlic and mint lamb sausage with some yummy home made tzatziki.

I don't know about most of you, but I just don't really like making fish inside the house. Possibly because I don't have a good stovetop exhaust, but it just leaves the whole house smelling like fish for the rest of the evening. So here's what I do, it works especially well with flaky fish.

I drizzled the cod loin fillet with a bit of evoo, crushed red pepper and sea salt. Next I heated the grill, and just put the fish on a piece of tin foil on the grill. When close to done, I added some butter on top. No flare ups, easy clean up and no fish faling through the grates of your grill. Cod loin fillet is a great buy this time of the year. It's not farmed, and cost is about $3.50 a pound.

Out of season...

It's starting to get hot here, sadly this means much of my local produce is gone gone gone.

No more avocados from my friends tree, no more kirbies (small cucumbers), no more scallions so delicious you could eat them as a meal. 

The last of the last for now, local Florida avocado with a kirby salad and grilled chicken thighs.

Question for the day; how do you fare with caulliflower? I noticed that it "bloats" me a bit. Now I don't know if that is because I just eat to much of my fav caulliflower rice or if it just doesn't agree with me. Would be interested to get your experience.

Happy monday everyone and make it a good week. What goals have YOU set for yourself this week?

It's been a while and Fitness challenge.

Did you miss me? ;-)

It's been about two weeks since my last post. I just have not had a lot to share. Work has been surprisingly busy for this time of the year, (not complaining at all, it's a good thing) and the days seem to have been flowing into each other without much excitement. I am suffering from a bit of spring fever. The weather has turned here, and the days are filled with 85 degree weather, blue skies, tropical breezes and balmy nights. At work, when 3 o'clock comes around, I often get distracted and start thinking about some beach sprint and a swim followed by a nice cold beer. This weekend I will share some video so you can see for yourself what I mean. If we get lucky...I will capture some manatee snorts or dolphin frolicking.

I hope you all are taking advantage of Diane's great site Modern Paleo. It's a wonderful resource for information sharing and a easy way to keep up to date on many great paleo/primal sites. Also make sure you sign up for the google group. Thanks to that, I got a GREAT link yesterday to a NY Times article by Mark Bittman I often forget what a tremendous resource Mark is when it comes to straight forward simple and tasty recipes. He didn't dissapoint in the latest NY times article where he shows some ASPARAGUS PESTO. That's right, asparagus pesto. So that's what I had for dinner last night with the kids.

Decadent to say the least and super easy!

I bought some cod loins. 350 degrees in the oven for about 20 minutes. Just a tiny bit of water in the dish for moisture and 2 heaping tbspoons of quality butter. Easy enough?

Now for the pesto. Wash and cut your asparagus (one bundle) in to 2 inch pieces; boil for about ten minutes. They are done when you can insert a knife without pressure. Drain and save some of the water just in case.

Toss this SUPER VEGGIE, (Art Devany has often said that asparagus are the king of the veggie kingdom, anybody have anything to share about that?) into your food processor and puree. Next add 1 clove of garlic and pulse some more. Next add about 1/3 cup of pine nuts (you can use walnuts too) and pulse again. Add 1/3 cup of the best parmigianna you can get your hands on.

Mix again and add some salt to taste. Next add the juice from a wedge of fresh lemon.

By now your fish is probably done. Cooked in delicious butter water ;-) spoon some of it over the top of the fish.

Look at that green goodness.

Spoon the pesto on your fish and enjoy. HUGE hat tip to Mark Bittman for this one.

I'm getting ready for a small fitness challenge her locally. It's a reverse mini triathlon. 5K run, 15K bike, and 1/4 mile swin in the Gulf of Mexico. The swimming part is killing me!!!! Do you swim? It's the first weekend in June and will keep you updated. It's good to be back and I missed you ;-)

Make it a great day and smile!