Starting TODAY we’ll be adding 5PM Class on Tuesdays.  Check schedule for details!  Sign in to class to reserve your spot.

As most of you know by now, I’ve been on a cooking kick!  This is primarily due to the recent purchase of a food processor that has opened doors to multitudes of new recipes. From carrot banana muffins, to rosemary crackers, apricot butter to cashew macadamia butter, this little appliance has been a godsend.

I found a great list of things you can do with a food processor on TheKitchn.com.  Here’s our Paleo-ish version of their list:

1. Puréeing Soups and Sauces -Carrot, sweet potato, cream of mushroom, you name it.

2. Preparing Salsas, Pestos, Dips, Butters, and Chimichuri – Need I say more?

3. Grinding Meat – Grinding meat ourselves is cheaper and safer.  Often times, the blades used in commercial meat factories are contaminated and the more surface area of blade that touches meat may mean more exposure to bacteria, etc.  Ground meat is exposed to lots of blades, lots of times and some chefs have a rule of thumb where they won’t cook ground meat any less than well-done.   Grinding meat at home, gives you the control of what parts of the beast are in your ground meat. Oh, and more importantly, I found a gyro recipe.

4. Grind spices - fresh nutmeg, cinnamon, etc, which can also be done in some coffee grinders.

5.  Grinding Nut Flour -purchasing alternatives to flour and even the high glycemic “gluten free” flour can add up.    A 1lb bag of almond meal is $10.00 and a 1lb bag of coconut flour runs $7.00.  However,   this weekend I discovered even more goodness:  A 1lb bag of raw almonds+5 minutes of food processing = $4.99!

6.  Making Nut Butter – also another budget savvy use for the processor.  You can customize your almond, cashew, or macadamia nut butter by adding vanilla, cinnamon, salt, coconut oil, cacao nibs, cocoa powder, etc.  Sometimes you’ll have to add some coconut oil to give it a smoother consistency.

7. Making Choco Babies – ok, it’s a cheat given the high glycemic index of the dates, but at least a little goes a long way!

8. Making Homemade Mayonnaise and Salad Dressings - Most store bought versions of mayo and dressings are made with canola, soy, or other crappy oil and sugars.

9.  Shredding Carrots, Onions or Garlic – helpful for making carrot banana muffins and paleo bbq sauce

10. Shredding Cheese – If you’re doing dairy, this would help in making meatza, which I can say from personal experience is mighty tasty.

As you can see we added a 5pm class today, which means we have 5pm classes now weekdays EXCEPT Thursday.  Please sign in to the class if you plan on showing up.  Otherwise, I may be at home, preparing the day’s “paleo sampling.”

In all seriousness, though, get in the habit of signing in to reserve your spot in all classes.  This gives us trainers an idea of equipment needed and if scaling required.   Also, in the future, if there is no one signed into class, we’ll assume no one’s coming (and may take a “union break” at a local urban paleo watering hole).  By October, it will be mandatory for all classes.

WOD 09.21.10

Snatch 3×3 @ 80% 1RM
C&J 3×3 @ 80% 1RM