Serious Breakfast of Champions

I know what you're thinking, what the hell is that?? Baby food on eggs?  This is what I ate for breakfast and it was delicious!  So in my blog the other day I posted how I hate working out in the AM blah blah, today I didn't have a choice.  Coach Jay looked as if he saw a ghost when I strolled in at 9am, I can't remember the last time I worked out before 10.  Anyway who cares when I work out, what i'm getting at is I needed a serious post work out meal and breakfast because I can't eat before I workout, especially when its a mile run sandwiched between 2 five minute amraps that involved kettlebell swings and Ghd sit-ups (modified for me).  I had two eggs cooked in a tiny bit of coconut oil, don't want fat post work out according to coach colin. On top is left over sweet potato & spicy sausage soup from the other day.  It is more like a puree so it has a good consistency to put ontop of eggs, chicken, meat, whatever you want. I admit, it looks like baby food on a plate, but get passed that, it was delish, and it is now 1 and i'm still not hunry. Of course, to top it off, venti iced coffee from starbs. So no recipe for today, just a little breakfast/post wod idea for you morning people.
Here is the recipe for the soup in case you didn't catch it. sweet potato+Spicy Sausage soup

And again, thanks for all the positive feedback from everyone, I wish everyone wasn't having such a difficult time commenting on my blog, i'd love to see/hear from people who have tried the recipes.  I need a computer nerd to give me a little info on what to tell my followers on how to post comments, let me know!

OKTHANKSBYE
~Nicki cleaneats Peet(s)

Almond Joy's

Sick of plain old dark chocolate to satisfy your sweeth tooth? Here's a healthier twist on the oh, so delicious Almond Joy.  One day I had brought a batch of my protein bars to the gym for the boss and his wife, and Joce said " these taste like candy bars!"  So I decided to make my protein bars, into Almond Joy Bars!  I did a little nip & Tuck to the recipe.  Like the protein bars, these need to be kept refrigerated or else they will melt. 

What you will need:
1 cup of coconut oil -pack into measuring cup then melt
1 cup unsweetened coconut
1/4 c of coconut flour
1 "heaping" tablespoon of almond butter
1 tsp of vanilla extract
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1 handful almonds
1. melt coconut oil and then add rest of ingredients EXCEPT the almonds and the chocolate chips.
2. Line a small baking dish with saran wrap ( thanks for the pointer Deb Bocuzzi- not just another pretty face)-- you want a small baking dish so make sure you cover the bottom of the dish with the mixture.
3. add mixture to baking dish-- press almonds into mixture-- I lined them up, like they are in real almond joys.

4. Now that i'm looking at this picture blown up I realize I didn't do a very good job of lining them up neatly, oh well.  Anywho, stick the pan into the freezer for about 10 minutes or until hardened all the way through.
5. Put 1 cup dark chocolate chips in the microwave at about 25 second increments, taking it out and stirring each time. Do that until melted
6. Take pan out of freezer, pour chocolate on top and spread it evenly, pop back in the freezer for another 5 minutes or so.

7.  Take whole thing out easily by pulling out saran wrap. peel off saran wrap and cut into bars! Store in refrigerator and Enjoy!

Sweet Potato and Spicy Sausage Soup

The sweet potato debate runs rampant in the paleo world.  Some say yes some say no blah blah blah.  Robb Wolf, the author of the Paleo Solution, says they are a paleo food, so i'll take his word for it.  They are a starchy root vegetable, and are non-toxic, unlike a regular potato.  Sweet potatos have a ton of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, and some people claim it is in fact the world's healthiest food.  That might be pushing it but, they are also a good source of glucose, which is why many people chose to eat sweet potatoes as a post workout meal.  The reality is, there is debate over many foods that we eat, some people say no to fruit, some only eat chicken and turkey, some say nuts are bad.  I'm certainly not a nutritionist, I base what I eat on research that i've done, or based on what Coach Jay and Coach Colin tell me ( because I know they've done they're research).  Like any other food, you don't want to eat sweet potatoes in bulk, i'd eat them post workout, or as a side dish, or in the case of this soup one bowl of it.

My favorite time of the day to work out is noon.  I'm not a morning person, and I don't like to work out too late.  I don't always get to workout at this time, but I do when I can.  So usually my post workout meal is also my lunch, and my favorite lunch is soup!  So here is a recipe I found on http://paleodietlifestyle.com/  . Sweet potato and Sausage Soup, I just finished making it and it was delicious! My House also smells amazing right now.  Here is the link for the actual recipe, of course I changed it up a tiny bit. I'll post what I used below...SweetPotato&SausageSoup

Here's what you need

- 1 3/4 lbs of sweet potatoes peeled and chopped into chunks.( I used that big guy and half the smaller guy)
- 2 big or 3 small carrots chopped
- 1/2 pound of pork sausage-casings removed ( I used Pork Chorizo from whole foods)
- 1/2 onion chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic chopped
-1 1/2 tsp of curry powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 7 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 1 tbs of coconut oil to sautee veggies

- Check your ingredients just in case, some butchers/deli's/stores can be sneaky with their ingredients-- This one seems pretty good..now we can continue..

1.) Melt tbs of coconut oil in pan and add potatoes, sausage, garlic, onion, carrots, curry, and cinammon-- sautee for about 5 minutes and thoroughly mix.

2.) at the same time bring the chicken stock to a boil
3.)after cooking for about 5 minutes add everything to boiling chicken stock.

4.) Let everything boil covered for about 10 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are soft.
5.) Add everything to blender ( this makes alot of soup, I needed to run 3 batches through the blender)

6.) Blend eveything up well and its good to go!

I ran into a little issue while making this, I wanted to leave the sausage chunky to add to the soup, but I also wanted to cook the sausage with the veggies in the broth to keep all the flavor in the soup.  So after I realized picking tiny chunks of sausage out of the broth was going to take a billion years, I ended up just blending it all together like the recipe called for.  Next time I'm going to satuee the sausage first, then take out the sausage and put it separate and leave the grease in the pan and sautee the veggies in that and the coconut oil.  Then you can add the sausage at the end to have a chunkier soup, which I like.  ** Just an option, when you make it do it whichever way you want!

PALEO BBQ Pulled Pork and "Biscuits"..whattt?

I put that picture in nice and big first, so you could see it with your own eyes.  Paleo BBQ pulled pork and Biscuits.  For those of you following my blog regularly you saw my post for BBQ sauce yesterday that I got from sonofgrok.com, another primal eating blog.  Well today I threw that Pork Butt in the crock pot at 7am, then went about my day. I am not usually adventurous when it comes to cooking meats.  I've noticed (since my lecture on food poisoning) I tend to overcook meat way too much, so I tend to stick to chicken and sometimes steak.  In the crock pot it really takes alot to "overcook" the meat, since the whole point is to cook it until it breaks apart.  It makes me more comfortable knowing that meat is cooking at a hot enough temperature to kill bacteria, all day.  Anyway, I won't start talking about bacteria before I explain this yummy meal.

So to start, I took one large onion and cut it up into large chunks.  I put half of the chunks in the bottom of the crock pot, put my pork ontop, then topped the pork with the rest of the onion. ( I kept the onion chunks big so I could later take the chunks out, me no likey chunks of onions)  Then I added water to the pot until it was about 2/3 of the way full, add a few dashes of salt if you'd like.  Cover it up set it to low, and you are done for the next 7-8 hours. 

at about 7 hours I took out the pork and Pulled that poor guy to shreds.  This is a little time consuming but it gives you the chance to get rid of all the fat you don't want.  If the fork doen't go easily through some pieces of meat they are probably really fatty and I would toss them, unless you prefer it fatty.

Look at all that protein.  At this point add all the meat back into the crock pot, with all the juices.  I also added a bag of baby carrots at this point too.  I could have put them in from the beginning but it was a last minute addition.

Let cook for another hour or two.  I cooked this for just under 10 hours all together.  Note, you can cook it in the BBQ sauce, or add the BBQ sauce after like I did.  It smelled so good even without the sauce that I left half in the broth with carrots and half I added to the BBQ sauce from yesterday.  If you forgot, here is the recipe from yesterday BBQ Sauce .

Have it plain or BBQ, I couldn't decide so I went for both!

Now what about those biscuits??

Paleo Biscuits (makes 5 small biscuits)
1/4 c coconut flour
1/4 c flax seed meal
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch celtic sea salt
1 egg
1/4 cup vanilla unsweetend almond milk
1 tbs almond butter
**for a little sweetness you can add a tsp or 2 of honey--Or drizzle it ontop when they are warm.
Mix all ingredients together, form small biscuits, and put on coconut oil sprayed cookie sheet.  Bake @ 350 for 15 minutes.
*** note, these don't look that great, but they are yummy and have that flaky biscuit-y texture that goes great with BBQ sauce.  Again, will be really good with some honey drizzled ontop, or a little butter.  The BBQ sauce was sweet enough for me though to dip the biscuits in.

Pulled Pork Sandwhich!  I also wanted to show off my manicure I treated myself to yesterday : )



Paleo BBQ sauce

Some people like all aspects of their life plain and simple including their food.  I am the complete opposite.  I need condiments, dips, sauces, seasoning, oils, anything to keep food from getting boring.  Once you get bored with you're food is when you turn to take out and fast food.  I found this recipe for BBQ sauce, mainly because tomorrow I am making Pulled Pork (check tomorrow or wednesday for that post).  Every BBQ sauce has brown sugar, maple syrup, salt, etc.  This recipe I found, I actually didn't even change that much, which is unlike me.  For lunch I had this BBQ sauce over some left over rotisserie chicken.  YUM
Check out the recipe here http://www.sonofgrok.com/2009/06/sog-zesty-bbq-zauce/
The only changes I made were I added 2 tsp of honey, and a dash of cinnamon.  I doubled the recipe so I have enough for my pulled pork tomorrow. I doubled everything except the garlic and onion ( you know me and garlic and onion, we don't work well together).  I also made beef broth with no-sodium added beef broth packets.  Found them at stop and shop, I probably could have found no sodium added already made beef broth at whole foods, but I didn't feel like goin up that way today.  Even the "low sodium" beef broth still had a ton of sodium.  I also used no sodium added tomato paste.  That way you can add your own celtic sea salt for taste.  I also read on another blog who used this recipe, they added a can of pineapples which sounds really good for a hawiian type sauce.  Only problem is canned fruit has a tonnnnn of sugar in it.  If you want to add pineapple I suggest cutting up your own.

Here is the exact recipe I made

- 2 6oz can tomato paste (preferable organic)
- 2.5 cups of beef stock -depending on the thickness you want your sauce

- 3 Cloves Garlic
- 1/2 of an onion
- 3 tablespoons dijon mustard
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil

- 1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 3 tablespoons chili powder

-2 tsp honey

- dash or two of cinnamon

** This is the doubled recipe, that i'm going to use for pulled pork.  Stick to the single recipe if you don't need alot.

So I put some on my chicken and the rest is ready to go for when I put my "Pork Butt"-yes thats what its called- in the Crock pot tomorrow morning.

Enjoy! Check back tomorrow to see how my pulled pork comes out!

Quick Fixes

I haven't had too much time lately to even cook an actual meal nevermind come up with new recipes for my blog.  I knew the extra time I had when I started my blog wouldn't last very long once this class started.  But I thought I might share some of my tips on meal planning ( or lack there of).  I had a hard time planning meals when I first started paleo.  I ate the same things all the time, if I wasn't in the comfort of my own kitchen I had no idea what I was supposed to eat, and if I was in a rush I usually didn't make the right choices. So i'm sure there are alot of people out there who have the same problem as me.  Here are a few tips and meal ideas I have come up with.

Breakfast:
-I always have hard boiled eggs in the fridge.  This is my on the go breakfast, I pack two hardboiled eggs and berries for breakfast to eat at school.  My classmates don't enjoy when I crack them open during break in lecture, but oh well! At least i'm not eating donuts and muffins from the coffee shop downstairs! 

- If you like protein pancakes, you can make the batter the night before and stick it in the fridge to save some time in the morning.

-Egg Bake  this is yummy hot, cold, warm, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Bake it then portion it out and wrap and saran wrap, then you can just grab and go!

- a few months ago, Coach Jays friend Caleb gave me the idea for muffin pan egg bakes.  This is  a great idea if you want to portion out your breakfast.  Same idea as the egg bake but you can add whatever you want to the egg mix and pour it into the muffin pan then you have your pre-portioned mini egg bakes.

Snack:
-Lara Bars

-protein bars

- Apples and almond butter ( I try to save as much time as possible, I even buy the pre-sliced apples from trader joes.

-baby carrots

- Cantaloupe wrapped with prosciutto- not the best, but delish. Try and find low sodium proscuitto

-Celery and almond butter

- Turkey Jerky --Deb Bocuzzi just bought a new toy to make her own Jerky. I'm jealous! Check It out Its Jerky Time

Lunch:
- My favorite quick and easy go to lunch is turkey, lettuce, and cherry tomato roll-ups.  Exactly how it sounds, with a cherry tomato rolled up in the middle.

-I got this idea from my friend Tina G.  Red Pepper Turkey Sandwhich.  Two slices of Red Pepper with some turkey between.  Spice it up with some hot sauce, or you can also add some mayo-even though its not Paleo.

-Chicken Salad- Rotisserie chicken is the best invention ever for me right now.  Get every last bit of meat off of that poor little guy, put some in a container for chicken salad, some for dinner.  I make my chicken salad with a not so great organic mayo from trader joes and sometimes I add walnuts, celery, or carrots for a little crunch.  I am yet to find a decent mayo without soy, anyone have any pointers??  I tried to make my own the other day, but after trying to make it I was too grossed out to eat it.  Chicken salad would be good on the red pepper "sandwhich" as well.

- I also like to toss chicken salad in with some baby spinach and make a salad, that way you don't feel like you  need any dressing

Dinner:
-Rotisserie Chicken!!!  The fast food of paleo eating! You can't get it at a drive through, but its the closest your gonna get to fast healthy food.  Try and find the unseasoned chicken though, read the label for sodium content if you can't find an unseasoned chicken.  I eat some for dinner usually with broccoli ( my latest kick--i'll probably hate broccoli in a few days) then I take the rest and portion it out into containers.  One for chicken salad and one container to snack on, add to an omlette, toss on a salad, etc.

-"Chicken Tenders"- I don't have kids...yet...But I know all they ever want to eat is chicken tenders.  My chicken parm recipe is great for chicken tenders too.  Buy some chicken breast tenders and make the coconut breading.  I know kids love to dip, skip the ketchup, if it won't cause a melt down, and drizzle a little honey on.  I don't know how you people do it, kids, work, gym, cook, eat, sleep. But if it were me, i'd make a batch of these one night and freeze them, and toss them on a baking sheet next time I needed a quick meal!

-  Sweet potato Fries- They sell them pre-sliced at trader joes.  All you have to do is toss them on a cookie sheet with a little olive oil and sea salt and you have your side dish.

- Brussel Sprouts- They have these at trader joes also, in a bag you can steam them in, doesn't get much easier than that!  Good luck getting your kids to eat these though!

-Chicken lettuce wraps- get some of that rotisserie chicken out, dice it up, put it on a big piece of lettuce, toss on some tomatoes, onions, maybe some quacamole or some Hot sauce, and roll it up like a burrito.

Post your quick fixes in the comments section! Enjoy!

Protein Bars

The only bars i've found lately that I don't get sick of or don't have little hidden ingredients such as rice, sugar, corn syrup, canola oil, sweetners etc. in them are the Lara Bars.  They are a good snack if you are on the go, but the only problem is they don't have that much protein.  I've been making these protein bars for a few months now and I finally have a recipe that I like the best.  Only problem is you have to keep them refrigerated if you can or they get really soft. I learned this the hard way when I brought them to school and a few hours later I went to eat them and had just a bag of melty mushy bars.
1/2 c almond flour
1/2 c homemade almond butter (or you can buy it, if you'd like)
3/4 c unsweetened coconut
1/2 c melted coconut oil
1 1/2 scoops of vanilla whey protein isolate
1 tsp vanilla extract

** combine all ingredients, pour into coconut oil sprayed baking dish, but in refrigerator until hardened all the way through.
**They are a little difficult to get out of the pan, maybe a slightly smaller pan so the bars are thicker would make it easier to get them out.

this is the brand of protein I use, I got it from whole foods.

Peanut Butter , Rapeseeds, Canola.... OH MY

Trivia: What in the heck is Canola Oil made from?
Yesterday I made a joke in my peanut butter vs almond butter blog about peanut butter containing Rapeseed Oil.  I said I didn't know what it was but I was sure I didn't want any rapeseeds in my body.  Being the nerd that I am, I obviously did some research and turns out, Rape Seed is as bad as it sounds!  In the natural form Rape seed is 50% Eruric Acid and has a very high glucosinolate content.  Eruric acid is an omega-9 fatty acid.  Ingestion of large amounts of this acid have been directly linked to permanent heart damage.  "So what everything is linked to heart damage and disease..."  Ok well let me put it this way, Rape seed is a toxic plant in the mustard seed family whose oil's have been used in the production of,  motor oil, is cultivated in Europe for Animal Feed (mainly fed to cows to fatten them up), it is used as a binder for oil paints, and as a pesticide.  When feeding Rapeseed to animals started causing health problems in the animals, scientists in CANada (hence CANola oil name) came up with an oil with much less Eruric acid and Glucosinolate content.  So Rapeseed is the Momma to Canola Oil, canola oil is pressed from the seeds of a plant that is used to produce motor oil and that is used as a pesticide.  After reading what I have read about Canola oil the past couple days, I don't care how cheap it is!! But coincidentally, I was at whole foods yesterday and picked up a bag of almonds so I could make my own almond butter.  Luckily, I noticed before I payed that I grabbed a bag of roasted almonds by accident instead of Raw almonds. Roasted almonds that were roasted in canola oil!  Read the ingredients, if you are buying something as simple as almonds, there shouldn't be any other ingredients besides almonds on the label!  I also came across many articles disputing the fact that canola oil is bad for us, saying it has little to no Euric acid content.  Maybe this is true but at one point it was a Rapeseed, and it had to go through one hell of a process to get it to the point of being Canola Oil.  Why even use it when you have options like olive oil.  Where is it from? Olives Coconut oil, where is it from? Coconuts.  Canola oil, where is it from?? Now we know, but when I asked you in the beginning of the post if you knew where it was from, did you know?

So overall Mr. Kelleher, if you are going to continue eat peanutbutter, please read the ingredients and buy a brand with NO RAPESEEDS!  If you are craving some Jiffy, go pop the hood of your car and take a wiff of that motor oil and remember what those Rapeseeds are used for!

Peanut Butter VS Almond Butter (how to make your own)

One of my best buddies from UMASS, Kevin Kelleher, left me a message on facebook today.  Although he wouldn't recognize me these days, considering I traded in my boxed wine I always toted around with me in college, for a real life, big girl purse.  Anywho, his message was:

"nickels im digging the blog despite the fact that i get really excited for something like "pancakes" only to be dissapointed when seeing the ingredients don't include reeses pieces or chocolate chips. Anywho how bad is skippy peanut butter for me. My buddy once laced into me about how it basically will give me cancer and i stopped for... like a week (similar to when i wake up monday morning saying i will never drink again and then im singing "shout" on a local dive bar's dance floor) but now im even worse. I legit have atleast 2 peanutbutter and fluff sandwhiches a day. Mostly because im broke. I would get the "natural" peanutbutter but its like double the price for half the size. So my question is, is skippy peanut butter slowly killing me?

 ps i think you should have a reader question of the day because thats just my peanut butter question, god forbid you tell me ketchup is bad for me i may as well just start digging my grave now"

Dear Kev,

If you don't love peanut butter than you probably aren't a human.  Peanut butter & fluff, PB&J, peanut butter icecream, peanutbutter cups, you name it, I would LOVE to eat it.  But in reality I have switched over my peanut butter habits to almond butter. 

First of all, there has been numerous recalls on peanut butter in the past two years for people getting salmonella from it! Grossss. Read this http://pediatrics.about.com/b/2011/03/04/skippy-peanut-butter-recall.htm  This year's recall was on your beloved Skippy Peanut butter, maybe you weren't really hung over, it was the Skippy Salmonella creeping up on you.

  When you look at a label of almond butter vs peanut butter the nutritional facts are actually not that different. 

RAW Almond butter



skippy



RAPESEED? What even is a rapeseed? I don't think I want any rapeseeds thank you

But when you look at the ingredients there is a big difference.  Almond butter is plain and simple, Raw Almonds.  Jiffy throws in the preservatives, extra oil, extra sugars, salts basically extra stuff you're body doesn't need.  Not to mention, Peanuts aren't even actually nuts, they are considered to be apart of the Legume family.  Legumes contain Lectin.  Lectin is a glycoprotein that binds with or sticks to carbohydrates.  Basically due to its sticky nature, it also has the ability to stick to the lining of your small intestine causing numerous gastointestinal problems. Lectins are also associated with autoimmune disorders due to the fact that those sneaky little guys can get into your blood stream, after they mess with your belly! 

On top of the extra sugar, salt, and oils in peanutbutter, and thesalmonella, GI problems, auto immune disorders, doesn't anyone wonder what is up with all the peanut allergies these days?  If that many people are allergic to peanut butter, it makes me wonder what kind of chemical make up does it have to make so many people so sick. 

Almond butter is the next best alternative to peanut butter, it takes some getting used to because its not as sweet, its not as creamy, and it....its just not the same.  But it is a much healthier option if you are looking for a healthier option.  If you want to stick with peanut butter but like you said ,can't afford the organic peanut butter. You can make your own!  I don't know if I trust you with a food processor Kevin but here is how I made my own almond butter, you can substitue whatever nuts you want.

Add nuts to food processor

After about a minute in the processor ( can use it at this point for almond flour)

After a few minutes -- turn on for 30 seconds at a time, then turn off and scrape sides

Raw Almond butter in less than 5 minutes!

**** I just saved an almond butter jar I already had and store it in there

Feedback

I know alot of people are having a hard time with the "comments"section.  It is strange that they make it so difficult for someone to post a comment.  I think you have to enter your email address in order to make a comment.  But if anyone has tried my recipes I would love some feedback in the comments sections!  What did you like, dislike, what would you do different, etc.  Or if you have any recipes you would like to share that would be awesome too!

Thanks everyone for following my blog!!

Colin's Nana Bread

This one is Colin's favorite so far, I made it for him Saturday, and now he thinks I'm going to stand in the kitchen for the rest of my life and mass produce "Nana Bread" for him.  I have two exams I should be studying for right now, yikes, but I wanted to take a little time for a post before people think I dropped of the planet for the next few days.  Alot of the baked good recipes are pretty similar that I have been putting up, it is hard to vary when you have limited ingredients to work with.  So once I get this week out of the way i'm going to start experiementing with other natural sweetners besides bananas to add to my baked goods.  But Colin said he couldn't make it through the weekend without cookies, drama queen, I didn't have time to sit there and plop the cookies on the tray one by one, so I made more of a cakey batter and just threw it in a loaf pan, much to my surprise, it turned out to have an awesome banana bread texture, feel, and taste.  Best part is it took me only 5 minutes to throw together.

Colin's Nana Bread

1/4 c coconut flour

1/2 cup flaxseed meal

1/4 Coconut oil (pack down in measuring cup before melting)

1 banana

2 eggs

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp honey--Next time i'm going to try it without the honey, I think it will be sweet enough with the dark chocolate and the banana)

1/2 c dark chocolate chips

*** mix all dry ingredients then add banana and coconutoil and honey..wait a minute for coconut oil to cool then add eggs and dark chocolate chips.

***Put in coconut oil sprayed loaf pan.  **Note, the batter only fills about 1/4 of the loaf pan, it is a pretty dense bread so I wasn't sure how it would bake with more batter.  I will let you know next time I make it.  But the bread was good, and there was plenty to go around even if it wasn't as thick as regular banana bread.

*** Bake for 25 minutes ( or until cooked all the way through) on 350.

This didn't last long enough to worry about storing it, but I would keep it wrapped up in saran wrap if it is going to last you a few days, to keep the moitsure.