Dinner Invention

I wasn’t sure what I wanted for dinner tonight but I did know I had a pound of ground beef that needed to be used. I looked around on the web for recipes but couldn’t find something that I both wanted and had all the ingredients for. I really didn’t want another night of hamburger patties. So I decided to get creative and just start cooking and see what happened, what I ended up with was a type of paleo hash that’s actually quite good.

Paleo Slaw Hash

• 1lb of ground beef, you could use turkey or sausage
• 1 avocado, mashed
• 1/3 cup coconut milk
• 1 package of broccoli slaw
• seasonings you prefer, I used Mrs Dash Table Blend
• preferred oil, I used olive oil

Heat oil in a skillet and brown ground beef, add seasoning.

In a bowl combine mashed avocado and coconut milk and stir until mixed. Mixture will mostly likely be lumpy.

Once ground beef has been brown add the avocado/coconut milk mix and stir well.

Once well mixed add one bag of broccoli slaw and stir well. Allow mixture to cook while stirring frequently.

The broccoli slaw will start to wilt and get a deeper shade of green, this means it is ready to eat.

 

 

Paleo Breakfast

When I went to bed last night I was hungry which I guess I expected to happen but I was surprised that it actually kept me awake. I survived the night though and decided to celebrate by cooking a delicious breakfast. I went with two slices of bacon, coffee with almond milk, and paleo pancakes. I put the recipe below for the pancakes and they were tasty but it was more like banana flavored scrambled egg. I had a hard time flipping the cakes so they came out a little mushy. I might play around with adding some almond or coconut flour to see if that helps make them hold together better.

Easy Paleo Pancakes

• 1 banana
• 1 large egg

Mash banana in a bowl until fairly smooth. Add egg and stir with a fork until completely mixed.

Heat your choice of oil in a pan, I used olive oil, and drop batter into pan. Let pancake cook until brown on the bottom and flip. (This was nearly impossible for me without it breaking apart, don’t worry, it still tastes pretty good!)

I ate mine plain but they could easily be topped with berries. You can also add cinnamon and salt if you desire, I did not. No pictures on this one because it was not photographic.

Paleo Challenge Day 1 Journal

I woke up late today so skipped breakfast and for lunch I just had an orange and some slices on salami because I was in a hurry to get somewhere. I met up with a friend I hadn’t seen in probably 10 years and met a new friend too. We met at a coffee shop so I did get a latte but with almond milk. While not considered totally paleo I’ve decided I’m not going to give up my coffee and tea because I like them and they are healthy drinks in my mind. Have  to be  careful of the syrups though. I picked up almond milk at the store because it does add a nice flavor to coffee.

I went to the local coop to pick up some of the items I felt I needed to properly eat during this challenge, like almond milk, sun butter, avocados  etc. I picked up a couple bacon cranberry burger patties because they looked good and I’m having those for dinner plus asparagus cooked with a little bit of ghee. This is the first time I’ve ever used ghee so but it does have a light buttery-ish flavor to it. The cranberries in the burger patties have a little sugar in them so it’s not completely paleo but compared to how I’ve been eating I don’t think it’s a big deal at all.

This is how my dinner came out, it was quite tasty.

Dinosaur (Paleo) Diet

I know it’s not really called the Dinosaur Diet but I’m going to call it that so it sounds more awesome. I was motivated by Steve’s 30 day paleo diet to go ahead and join him and do the challenge myself. I have been reading about the paleo diet and it’s actually a fairly sound set up from a clean foods stand point. I’m a big fan of clean foods and I think this 30 day challenge will help me get back into eating the way I actually enjoy.

I’m planning to easy into paleo for the first few days though and probably won’t go 100% paleo but rather stick to the 80/20 rule. I mostly plan to make an exception for yogurt (quality yogurt with clean ingredients  and possibly milk because I need a source of vitamin D supplementation due to a known deficiency.

Today I bought a grill pan at ShopKo so I can cook up my veggies and meat grilled style which is how I really like my steak and asparagus. I can’t wait for the farmers’ market to start and hope to get most of my foods there.

For those that don’t know the paleo diet the following are the basic foods you eat:

• Lean meats including eggs
• Seafood
• Healthy fats
• Nuts and seeds
• Fruits
• Vegetables

Anything that doesn’t fall into that list is considered non-paleo. This means no dairy, legumes, sweets, salty snacks, or grains. It’s going to take time to adjust to not eating cheese or grains but I know I can do it.

I still need to go shopping and start meal planning to make this easier. I see eating a lot of eggs for breakfast but that’s something I used to do all the time, but this time there won’t be cheese involved. I’m really interested to see if this will help with some of my health problems, especially my fructose malabsorption.

Adding fructmal restrictions to paleo isn’t too difficult, just can’t eat some types of fruit, especially apples for some reason. The fruits I do best with are oranges and berries so I’ll still have some I can eat. Mostly I need to fill up on vegetables because most of those are good to go, except maybe tomatoes and onions but I’m still not positive.

Sample Meal

This is a picture of what I had for dinner tonight. Grass-fed grilled beef patty, mixed greens, and mashed butternut squash. Pretty tasty!

Food Plan

I came up with this food plan yesterday and decided to put it into practice today. It may seem extreme but now I’m looking at it as an experiment so I am going to track my progress and see how it goes. The plan itself is actually really simple and below is a list of foods I’m going to eat:

• Proteins (chicken, beef, pork and eggs)
• Vegetables (as much as I want)
• Fruit (only once or twice a day)
• Olive oil as needed when cooking

That’s it. I am going to focus on what I am going to eat versus thinking about cutting anything out because I want to help minimize the feelings of loss. This is actually easy to work with in my mind because it’s a limited list with a lot of different options. Since I already have regular doctor appointments to monitor my nutrient levels and the likes that will help me see how this is benefiting or hurting my overall health. I would like to get some baseline readings at the start but I might have to just use the information from my last doctor visit.

I’m also trying to eat less often during the day and just eat meals and regular intervals. The hard part might be eating out however I don’t have a lot of money for that right now so that is helpful. Plus, I can pick places that serve foods I can eat with some modifications.

Freeing Myself – A New Goal Emerges

I think about food a lot. I have the normal thoughts everyone has, “what’s for dinner?” “what should I take for lunch?” “if we eat out, where should we go?” and so on. I’m ok with these thoughts, it’s the other times that bother me and I want to change. I want to work on not obsessing about food any more. I have said all along that I am “breaking up” with food and it’s time to make yet another step in this plan. My new goal is to no longer let thoughts about food linger. The thoughts I’m talking about are little things like imagining what I’d eat if I did go to the donut shop, or remembering some really nice treat I had once. I think about when I’m going to eat next, how long until I can eat again, etc. This has nothing to do with hungry and I don’t think it can be healthy.

I need a plan though so this is definitely a work in progress. The best way to stop is to make sure I’m too busy to care. I need to find more things to do – read more, use the treadmill, watch a DVD, go for a ride, read some blogs, write in my blog, listen to the radio, etc. When the thoughts I want to stop having start I need to just say “hey, self, this is one of those things you wanted to change” and then move on to something else.

The challenge starts now – I’m ready!

Grocery Shopping – What I Buy

Today I did my large grocery shopping trip for the next week or two. I like to do large trips weekly or less and then make side trips when I need more fresh things. Buying fresh fruits and vegetables means going to the market more often but it’s totally worth it. I decided to line up my haul and post a picture.

This food is shared between me and one very greedy little guinea pig, she really only eats vegetables though and the bagged lettuce is mostly for her, I prefer spinach.

Here’s a run down of what I bought:

• Blackberries
• Raspberries
• Pears
• Apples
• Nectarines
• Classic Romaine Lettuce Mix
• Spinach
• Green Peppers
• Baby Carrots
• Provolone Cheese Slices
• Turkey Burgers
• Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
• Unsweetened Chocolate and Vanilla Almond Milk
• Earth Grain Multi-Grain Thin Buns (which had a $1 off produce coupon)
• Reduced Sodium Pinto Beans
• Frozen Broccoli
• Frozen Stir-fry Vegetables
• Hard Boiled Eggs (Yes, I buy pre-boiled eggs. Boiling eggs ends in disaster for me)

Total cost: $53.43

This was a little over the budget for what I wanted to spend but I know if I don’t have healthy foods in the house I end up going out and getting junk. I was getting really low on foods to make meals the last couple days.

So – what are your favorite healthy foods to stock up on? Let me know in the comments!

Product Review: Hamilton Beach Single-Serve Blender

With the heat of summer coming I decided it was finally time that I bought a blender so I could make my own healthy smoothies at home. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money and I don’t need a large blender so I finally decided on the Hamilton Beach Single-Serve Blender.

What I love about this blender is that not only does it make a single serving smoothie, it makes it directly in a travel cup so that’s one less dish I have to wash. Since I don’t have a dishwasher, anything that saves me a little time is great. Inside the box was the blender and instructions. The only lid included is the travel lid shown below, I didn’t have any issues with it leaking – yet.

The blender actually arrived three days earlier than I had originally thought it would so I had to run out to the store and buy some groceries so I could use it right away. I assembled the ingredients: slightly frozen banana chunks, unsweetened chocolate almond milk, nonfat plain yogurt and whey protein concentrate. I was going for a post workout protein smoothie with the first one.

I measured out all the ingredients and added ice to the top. I wasn’t sure how well the blender would handle ice because it didn’t look like the strongest of blades.

The travel cup locks into the base and you only have one speed option – pulse. You have to hold down the button if you want it to blend and it did get a slight warm motor smell but overall the first smoothie mixed up well and quickly. It was pretty filling too, which was nice. I would give this first smoothie a thumbs up and since the blender was under $20, I consider it a good deal.

Since last night, I have made two additional smoothies and the one I made this morning did not go as well. I think the problem was using frozen strawberries that got caught up in the blades. I had to stop and stir quite a few times in order to get it all blended. It seems to handle ice fine though so when I made a third smoothie tonight, it was just a banana, almond milk and ice. Now I just need to search around for some great smoothie recipes.

Additional note (6-4-10): The actual blender blade stays with the travel cup and the connection at the bottom is open. It would have been nice to have a cap to cover the bottom.

When Cravings Crush

Tonight was the evening of many cravings and while I didn’t eat at my top form for health, I did learn a lot. It all started because I ended up working late and just outside our offices I knew there was a little street market going on and I knew someone would be selling BBQ. I was really in the mood for a BBQ pork sandwich and I actually had the cash to buy it. I had money in my desk still, left over from my vending machine days, so after debating for awhile I decided to just do it and get my sandwich fix. I was within my calorie goal for the day so that was fine. I really should have just bought the sandwich and not the cornbread muffin though but I was like a kid with a little spending money and couldn’t stop myself.

It made a great dinner and I’m glad I did it because I wanted to work a little later and it helped fill one of my cravings that I’d been having for a couple weeks. I’ve learned that sometimes when I true craving hits, it’s better to just fill that and make the calories work out rather than deny it. Denial just sends me into an eating frenzy anyway because my brain gets mad, throws a fit like a toddler, and I’m eating peanut butter by the spoonful.

The real lessons from tonight came later though, as I drove home from work. I got a really really strong craving for ice cream, which I’ve noticed has been happening a lot lately. I find this odd because normally ice cream isn’t high on my favorite treat list, but this was undeniable and once again I gave in – fearing the aforementioned peanut butter problem. I drove to DQ, just as a storm was hitting, and ordered a small cookie dough blizzard. This isn’t even what I really wanted but I was in the drive-thru and hadn’t been to DQ in so long that I panicked and just ordered the first thing I saw that sounded close to what I wanted. So I drove home in the rain and thought about how nice it was going to be to have some ice cream with full plans to hit the exercise bike after I ate it.

I brought my treasure inside and started eating and something very odd happened. It was awful. One of the worst things I’ve eaten in awhile. It was super sweet, the ice cream had an odd consistency and I just hated it. So, unlike old me, I threw it away. Old me would have eaten it any way. Old me would have eaten it and offended by it’s lack of quality, would have eaten the peanut butter too – for good measure. But the new me, nope, the new me got mad at DQ and tossed it. The new me is now put off DQ and really has no desire to darken their doorstep again.

Then I marched myself downstairs, despite the awesome storm outside (or maybe because of it) and went my longest time ever on the exercise bike. 30 minutes and 9.3 miles. It was great – I listened to music and I burned off some of the sandwich as well as the horrible ice cream that I did eat.

Stupid ice cream.