Difficult is Worth Doing

Oh yeah! This is one of my favorite recipes because:

1. it’s super freakin’ easy
2. it’s super freakin’ tasty
3. it’s super freakin’ easy

Literally it’s 3 ingredients you mix together in a ziploc bag, then throw in your chicken and let set for the day.  You can use thighs or breasts and you can grill or bake them - whatever floats your boat.  

Personally I like thighs so I can get the crispy skin and I prefer the grill pan since we don’t have a BBQ.  And today I was too tired after Crossfit to walk to the backyard and cut of some fresh rosemary so I cheated and used dried. When I let the dogs in later and actually have to walk back there, then and only then will I cut a stem or 2 and throw it in the bag. What can I say- laziness is an art?

And here’s some HOLY COW CHOCOLATEY GOODNESS!!! Recipe HERE

Seriously, seriously good…. recipe HERE

This came out AMAZINGLY delicious!  Recipe from PaleOMG site HERE.

Amazing recipe that comes from Symon’s Supper’s off the Cooking Channel HERE.  I didn’t have golden beets so I just used regular ones.  scrumptious!  

Yum! So another great site I love for Paleo/Primal recipes is PaleOMG and this amazing swordfish recipe comes from THERE.  We served it alongside our Grilled Peaches with yogurt and honey (didn’t have chopped mint though) and that recipe is found HERE.

For the swordfish marinade

• 2 swordfish filets
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon honey
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• pinch of salt and pepper

For the salsa

• 2 peaches, seed removed, diced
• 1 avocado, halved and diced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 red onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 jalapeno, finely chopped
• handful of cilantro, roughly chopped
• juice of 1 lime
• salt, to taste

I love summertime and the fact that you can BBQ all the time now!  For lunch/dinner we made seasoned steaks, chile lime rubbed shrimp and asparagus - all on the BBQ.  They came out amazingly and I was stuffed at the end of the meal.  The chile-lime rub we get from Williams-Sonoma HERE.  It’s awesome on seafood and we’ll do shrimp this way and use it for shrimp tacos too.

For dessert we did an amazing Michael Symon recipe (you know I love him!!!).  It was grilled peaches with honey, yogurt and mint and the recipe can be found HERE.  

• 6 peaches 
• 1 TBS olive oil
• salt
• 1 cup greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/3 cup torn mint leaves

Basically you cut the peaches in half and take the pit out.  Brush the olive oil on top and sprinkle with salt (we used Red hawaiian sea salt).  Place each half on the grill and leave on for 2 minutes without moving it.

Transfer to a plate and put a dollop of yogurt on top (we used Greek Gods brand Honey Vanilla yogurt for extra flavor), drizzle with honey and sprinkle mint leaves on top.  OMG!  They were a big hit - people who are big cake and cookie eaters couldn’t believe how amazing they tasted, how simple it was and how healthy it was!  Oh yeah!  I keep telling people eating this way actually tastes BETTER than the processed crap they shovel down their throats.  You just gotta open their minds!

Hope your 4th was great too! Now off to see fireworks!

Breakfast of champions! Steak egg and spinach!

I am still really sore from “Hope” on Saturday and I really didn’t want to go in tonight.  And for as much as I hate running I went in hoping we’d run because my arms are still like jello.  Lucky for me it was a Box Benchmark WOD today that involved running, yay!  But the joke was on me because the other half of it was push-ups - boo!

• “150 push or run”
• 25 minute cap
• start with push-ups and do as many as you can without stopping
• you can “rest” only while holding the plank position
• once you can’t do anymore push-ups you go run 400 meters
• when you’re done with your run you come back in and start again
• the goal is to get to 150 push-ups in the 25 minutes

My score was: 

20/30/39/50/65/86

Which means I did 86 push-ups total and for each “/” you see that means I ran 400 meters.  So in total I did 5x400m - more than a mile.  Oh, and that’s the hubby’s score just above mine! Woot-woot! Beat ‘em! He got less push-ups and did 1 more run than me.  He kicked butt though!  Not sure how much longer I’ll be able to outperform him, LOL, maybe another month or 2.

Then it was home for dinner! Since it’s a late workout (8-9pm) I make sure I cook us something light to eat but still is paleo.  Tonight it was wild caught salmon marinated in a ginger, garlic sesame oil blend with zucchini, tomatoes and mushrooms sauteed in chili garlic macadamia nut oil.  On the side was greek yogurt drizzled with a little honey and topped with blueberries and macadamia nuts.  Y-U-M!

Lunch!  3 eggs over-easy on top of sauteed spinach and mushrooms and topped with chopped avocado.  Protein shake on the side.  I haven’t mentioned before that I drink protein shakes, have I?

Well, I do at least 3 times a week.  I use Redwood Hill Farm Kefir, 1 banana and a scoop of Jay Robb egg white protein powder.  Today I threw in half of a single serving of frozen acai berry other times I throw in whatever fresh berries I have.

So I’m like a crazy Cooking Channel addict and watch pretty much every show on that network and Food network.  My absolute favorite celebrity chef’s, you know, the ones that I record and save absolutely every episode on my DVR, are:

1. Nadia G’s Bitchin’ Kitchen - because she’s a total cooking bad-a$$ and super hilarious.  I actually want to hang out with her in real life.  Who said a cooking show had to be boring?  If you’ve never watched it, definitely check it out.  She’s big on clean eating, so most of her recipes I can use.
2. Michael Symon - oh yeah! He’s pretty much paleo/primal himself and uses tons of great meats and veggies.  Occasionally he’s got some grains or pasta, but you can easily substitute those out.

That brings me to today’s recipe! Lamb Bolognese from last week’s episode of Symon’s Suppers.  I love that he used lamb in this as I do like to vary my meat.  Geez, a year ago I wouldn’t have thought I’d be eating the amount of meat I am today.  Anywhoo, here is the recipe:

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 pound ground lamb shoulder
• Kosher salt
• 2 medium carrots, roughly chopped
• 1 stalk celery, roughly chopped
• 1 small red onion, roughly chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups dry red wine
• 12 ounces canned San Marzano tomatoes, chopped
• 3 sprigs fresh oregano
• 1 fresh bay leaf
• 1 cinnamon stick
• Pinch chile flakes

DIRECTIONS

• Heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the lamb with a liberal pinch of salt and cook until brown, about 4 minutes. 

• Meanwhile, combine the carrots, celery and onions in a food processor and pulse to chop finely.

 

• With a slotted spoon, remove the browned lamb from the pan and set aside. Add the vegetables to the pan with a large pinch of salt and sweat until translucent and aromatic, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic and sweat 1 minute more. Deglaze the pan with the red wine, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to get all the goodies into the sauce. 
• Bring to a simmer and cook until reduced by about half. Then add the tomatoes, oregano, bay leaf, cinnamon stick and chile flakes, and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the lamb back into the pan and let simmer 20 to 30 minutes longer.

I of course use spaghetti squash in place of pasta.  So cook one of those bad boy’s up and serve this Bolognese sauce over top!  Now I rub my squash down with garlic oil before salt & peppering it and it’s been coming out AH-mazingly! So try that out for a little more flavor!

So dinner tonight is listed above, but I wanted to include the recipe for the Steak & Garlicky Swiss Chard since I’m a chard-addict.  This comes from the Summer issue of Fine Cooking Cook Fresh magazine.  I used a buffalo ribeye, grassfed, but you can use any kind of sirloin steak.  

**sweet potato has cinnamon on it - LOL - I know it looks gross in the pic**

• 2 pound sirloin steak
• 1 1/2 tsp. rosemary
• salt & pepper
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 3/4 cup dry red wine (Merlot is good)
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 TBS red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 2 large bunches of swiss chard (stems thinly sliced and leaves roughly chopped)

1. Trim & season steaks with first 3 ingredients. Preheat oven to 400. 
2. Heat 1 TBS oil over medium high heat. Working in batches arrange the steaks in the skillet turning once until browned on each side (3-4 min).  Remove and transfer to baking sheet.
3. Roast steaks another 4-6 minutes for medium rare.
4. Return skillet to heat.
5. Add wine & scrape the bottom of the pan and reduce liquid by half (3-4 min).
6. Add garlic and cook until fragrant.
7. Whisk in vinegar, sugar, mustard plus 1/4 tsp salt & 1/8 tsp pepper.
8. Drizzle in the remaining 3 TBS oil while whisking constantly.
9. Add the chard stems & cook until softened (5 min).
10. Add the leaves in batches tossing until the are wilted (2-3 min).
11. Transfer everything to plates & serve!

Just wanted to say I finally opened one of these up for a snack.  SO good! the meat is flavored well and isn’t too tough at all!  The fruit and nut mix was a nice addition.  Definitely need a napkin since the seasoning will be all over your hands, LOL.  These are definitely going in my backpack while I’m at ComicCon next month since I can’t do sandwiches and processed snack foods like I did last year.  You can purchase these packs HERE.

Lunch! Salad mix with arugula & baby spinach.  Mango, strawberries, avocado, parmesan, steak, radish sprouts and hoisin vinaigrette.  

So we had a small dinner party tonight and like I’ve said before, it’s a great opportunity to expose people to some amazing paleo/primal/clean eating foods and recipes that they’re not used to eating.  

Tonight’s dinner was a grilled steak and asparagus salad with hoisin vinaigrette, Okinawan sweet potatoes with lime butter (recipe HERE) and a rhubarb berry mixture with coconut cream (dessert recipe HERE) 

The main dish is the cover recipe from Fine Cooking, Cook Fresh Spring 2012  issue. Seriously - you need to buy this magazine – it has many more amazing recipes! We only modified this recipe by adding some baby spinach in addition to the watercress to just fill up the plate more and because we like a little more ruffage. And can I just say OMG! it was amazing and our guests freaked out for it!!

Grilled Asparagus and Steak Salad with Hoisin Vinaigrette

For the Steak & Asparagus

• ·         ½ TBS black peppercorns
• ·         1 tsp coriander seeds
• ·         1 tsp fennel seed
• ·         Kosher salt
• ·         1 lb. thick cut New York strip steak
• ·         1 ½ TBS olive oil
• ·         1 lb. asparagus trimmed

For the Vinaigrette

• ·         3 TBS chicken broth
• ·         2 ½ TBS hoisin sauce
• ·         2 TBS olive oil
• ·         2 TBS white wine vinegar
• ·         1 ½ tsp soy sauce
• ·         2 tsp minced fresh ginger
• ·         1 tsp Dijon or Chinese mustard
• ·         1 tsp minced garlic
• ·         Salt & pepper to taste

For the Salad

• ·         4 cups watercress
• ·         1 large mango, peeled & slivered into wedges (or use navel oranges)
• ·         ½ small red onion thinly sliced and soaked briefly in ice water
• ·         Radish sprouts for garnish

Prepare the steak & asparagus

• 1.       Put the peppercorns, coriander, fennel & ½ tsp salt in a spice grinder and grind to powder.
• 2.       Coat the stead with ½ TBS oil and then the peppercorn mixture
• 3.       Set aside for at least 30 minutes and up to 1 ½ hours.
• 4.       Toss the asparagus with the remaining 1 TBS of oil and season w/salt & pepper.

Make the Vinaigrette

1.       In a blender combine all the ingredients and pulse 2-3 times to mix adding more broth if necessary to achieve a silky consistency.

Grill the steak & asparagus

1. Grill steaks about 5 minutes
2. Flip & cook 2^nd side about 4 minutes (for rare)
3. Remove and put on cutting board.
4. Tent with foil and let it rest while you grill the asparagus.
5. Spread the asparagus out and cook, turning a few times about 5 min.

Assemble the Salad

1. Arrange asparagus, cress and mango on 4 plates.
2. Thinly slice the steak across the grain and arrange over the salad.
3. Drizzle with the vinaigrette and garnish with the red onion and sprouts.