Once again I am going to refer to my favorite blog, bulletproofexec, for what is in my opinion, the best chocolate ice cream recipe ever. Now this isn’t your typical ice cream recipe, it’s just some eggs, some fat and some cocoa power thrown in a blender and then into an ice cream maker. It’s rich and creamy, and while I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a health food, it probably won’t knock you off the wagon. Dave Aspry came up with this recipe when he and his wife were trying to have a baby, so they would eat this to become more fertile. You can read all about it in his post “Recipe: Creamy Coconut “Get Some” Ice Cream.” Nick and I have made this a few times, just ask our taste testers what they think!

Ingredients:

• 4 whole eggs
• 4 yolks
• 2 tsp vanilla (which Dave sells on his site: Bulletproof Vanilla)
• 1 gram vitamin C (or 10 drops apple cider vinegar or lime juice to taste)
• 7 tbs grass fed butter (we use Kerrygold)
  
• 7 tbs coconut oil (Dave offers this alternative: Upgraded Cacao Butter)
• 3 tbs + 2tsp MCT oil (important for consistency, he sells this online as well, might be worth trying just plain coconut oil if this isn’t available to you)
• 5.5 tbs xylitol or erythritol (I think this is plenty sweet, sometimes I use a little less)
• ~100 grams water or ice (just under 1/2 cup; add less than you think you need, then increase the amount; we recommend using water, we discovered that the ice causes all of the fats to solidify which makes all of the ingredients tough to mix)
• (optional) 1/4 to 1/2 cup of cocoa powder (we use the low-toxin Upgraded Chocolate powder he recommends)

Instructions:

1. Blend everything but the water/ice in blender. It takes a while to get the butter blended into perfect creaminess.
2. Add water or ice and blend some more until well blended. Ideally, you want a yogurt-like consistency for creamy ice cream, or add more water for a firmer, icier texture (again we only use water, no ice)
3. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and turn it on.

A few additional tips, if you haven’t used an ice cream maker before, you have to freeze the bowl in advance of making the ice cream, so you have to plan at least a day in advance. Also, if you can wait long enough, freeze the ice cream over night in a container, we discovered the consistency is much more like ice cream if you let it sit for a day.

Enjoy!

WOD 12.26.2013

Back Squat 3×5

then,

Dynamic Duo Partner WOD:

3 rounds:

7 Power cleans (165/113)

14 T2B

5-10-15 yard shuttle run

Looking for a way to easily add some healthy fat into your diet?  Coconut butter or, as some distributors call it, coconut manna is about as easy as it gets.  Whole Foods and similar markets may stock it in the coconut oil section, and we use the Whole Foods here in El Segundo.  The texture is smooth and creamy, and reminds me of almond butter.  I use it in a similar fashion for dipping apples and pears, or drizzling on bananas and sweet potatoes.  When the temperature is above 73 degrees the coconut butter is easily spreadable and just may require some mixing to help stir-in the oil that separates to the top from sitting for too long.  If you forget to mix in the oil, it’s no big deal the spread will be very dense and difficult to spread easily.  If the temperature is cooler, the coconut butter remains pretty solid and difficult to spread, but a short time in the microwave or placing the the jar into warm water will help regain its spreadability.  You may even try experimenting with using the solid state butter like putting shavings into a bowl of strawberries or blueberries.  Perhaps even add it into smoothies for a creamier texture.

The downside to coconut butter…well it’s not cheap by any means as it typically averages $8 or higher for a jar.  Look to save a little money by making your own, especially if you plan on using it often.  A high powered blender like a Vitamix is a necessity as both Nom Nom Paleo’s post and the video below highly recommend it.  Looks easy enough, and you can make as much as you want, oftentimes at a fraction of the price.

WOD 12.16.13

Power Clean 3×3

50 Wall Ball Shots (20/14)
50 Ring Push Ups
25 Thrusters (135/95)
25 Handstand Push Ups (25# plates)

So you’re filled to the brim with turkey but still have lots of leftovers.  What do you do with it all?  Personally, I make turkey soup using the carcass but here are a few recipes from Mark’s Daily Apple to change up the flavors.

Hearty Turkey and Mixed Vegetable Frittata

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, chopped

1 medium red pepper, chopped

1 tsp garlic, minced

2 tsp olive oil

1 cup mushrooms, thinly sliced

½ tsp pepper

¼ tsp salt

1 cup cooked asparagus, chopped

2 cups left over turkey, shredded

4 eggs

½ cup fresh parmesan, grated

Click here for the directions.

Turkey and Spicy Sausage Gumbo

Ingredients:

¾ cup olive oil

2 lbs fresh okra

3 large onions, chopped

2 large green peppers, chopped

6 stalks of celery, chopped

½ pound andouille or kielbasa sausage, chopped into bite-sized pieces (try to make sure you get the good stuff)

Turkey broth (Obtained by boiling the carcass. If you don’t plan on doing this, you can substitute a quart of chicken broth)

½ pound leftover turkey

3 lbs shrimp, cleaned and deveined

1 can tomato sauce

Salt, to taste

Cayenne pepper, to taste

2 Bay leaves

Click here for the directions.

WOD 11.29.2013

Jerk 3 x 2

Then, 5 Rounds not for time

• 5 Deadlifts (285/173)
• 10 Strict handstand pushups

Now that the cooler fall season is upon us, my creative impulses in the kitchen have ramped back up. Also with the cool weather, nothing hits the spot like some good ol’ comfort food. With that in mind, today’s recipe is based on a comfort food classic — shepherd’s pie.

I found this recipe over on EliteFTS and only modified it slightly to make it compliant to our Good Food Standards. What really drew me in was the use of pumpkin and coconut milk, as the author said she originally tried sweet potato, but found it to be a little too sweet. She said the pumpkin helps balance the dish out more and I really liked the final results.

Ingredients:

• 10 stalks celery, chopped
• 10 peeled carrots, chopped
• 1 large yellow or white onion, chopped
• 2 lbs grass-fed ground beef
• 1 can coconut milk (full-fat only, not the “light” versions)
• 2 cans pumpkin puree (do not use pumpkin pie filling, as those have added sugars)
• garlic salt

Directions:

1. Wash and chop the veggies, making sure to have pretty big chunks. You want them to retain some of their crispness during cooking.
2. Set your oven to 350F.
3. Cook the ground beef until it’s about medium-well (some pink should be visible).
4. Pour the coconut milk into a separate saucepan while the beef is cooking, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Stir often to prevent scorching.
5. Drain the beef very well.
6. Season the ground beef liberally with the garlic salt. (You can afford to be a little heavy-handed, as the other ingredients will help even out the salt content.)
7. Once the coconut milk reduces and thickens to the consistency of paste, remove from heat.
8. Add the veggies to the beef, cover and let the mixture cook for about five minutes.
9. Remove the mixture from heat and stir your thickened coconut milk into the beef and veggies.
10. Pour out the mixture into a 9×13 baking dish evenly.
11. Drop globs of the pumpkin puree onto the beef and smooth out into an even top layer.
12. Put baking dish into the oven at 350F for 15 minutes.
13. After the 15 minutes is up, put the dish under the broiler for 5 minutes, which will crisp up the top.
14. Let cool slightly and serve!

WOD 11.06.13

Back Squat 3×5 or Wendler

400m Run
21 Toes to Bar
9 Wall Ball Shots
400m Run
15 Toes to Bar
15 Wall Ball Shots
400m Run
9 Toes to Bar
21 Wall Ball Shots

Sometimes cooking can get tedious.  Since I tend to resort to one of three different go-to meals and pork chops, ground beef scramble, and roasted chicken, it can get old pretty quickly.  So, I recently purchased a Paderno Spiral Vegetable Slicer after seeing it on a paleo cooking blog to get creative in the kitchen again.

The slicer comes with three different attachments so you can slice big “noodles” (a la curly fries), small noodles, and thin slices like the picture above.   Check out this video for a demonstration of each attachment.   Since the weather has occasionally felt like autumn, I decided to try out variation of Marcus’ winter squash dish.

I sliced 5-6 medium squashes/zucchinis and sautéed them in butter over medium low heat until they were “al dente.”  I then added cooked mild italian sausage to marinara sauce and poured it over the veggies.  Next time around, I’ll probably add garlic and more spices to the veggies, but satisfied my comfort food craving and added variety to the menu.  Here was the end result:

I later tried the large noodle slicer on a sweet potato and apple and fried them on high heat in coconut oil.  It made for a delicious treat, especially with some cinnamon sprinkled on top.  The best thing about this slicer is how easy it is to clean unlike many other cooking gadgets!

WOD 10.15.13

Snatch to a heavy single rep

Back Squat 3×5 or Wendler

Max Strict Pull Ups in 3 Minutes

Happy Birthday Morgan!

Just because summer is over, that doesn’t mean the BBQs have to stop. Instead, take the BBQ indoors and let your slow cooker do the work. I went searching for this recipe in particular to have a Paleo BBQ sauce in my repertoire. You see, I LOVE BBQ but don’t always appreciate the sugar used in most BBQ sauces. What’s awesome about this recipe is that this blogger actually used the BBQ sauce recipe from Whole 30′s It Starts With Food. Easy meal to prepare and Whole 30 approved! What’s not to love?

Prep Time: 45min / Cook time: 6 hours
Makes 2 cups of BBQ Sauce and 2-3 lbs of ribs.

Ingredients

• 2 Cups Tomato Sauce
• ⅔ Cups Unsweetened Apple Sauce
• 4 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar
• 4 Tablespoons Coconut Aminos
• 2 Tablespoons Dijon Mustard
• 2 teaspoons Hot Pepper Sauce (I like Trader Joe’s Chili Pepper Sauce)
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• 1 Tablespoon Ghee or GrassFed Butter
• 2 Cloves of Garlic, finely minced
• 2 teaspoons Chili Powder
• 1 teaspoon Paprika
• ½ teaspoon of cayenne (use more for extra SPICE!)
• 1 yellow onion, medium dice
• 2-3 lbs Pork Baby Back Ribs
• Salt, Pepper and Garlic Powder to taste

Click here for cooking directions. Word to the wise, be gentle when removing the ribs from your slow cooker. The meat will seriously fall of the bone! Then again, that’s not such a bad thing.

WOD 10.04.2013

Deadlift 1×5 or Wendler

OTM for 6 minutes,
Row 200m

Then 3 rounds
4 Muscle ups (sub 8 dips)
16 Pistols

         I follow a plethora of Paleo centric food blogs. Often I find inspiration in them and veer off to create my own unique dish. Jenn and Tiffany at The Cavegirl Dish blog are two girls after my heart. They have some really wonderful recipes and most are easy to make. I pulled this salmon one out recently because it’s quick and very simple. I also fondly remember this dish as the first time I’ve ever used coconut aminos. Coconut aminos can be found at Whole Foods in the soy sauce/Asian section. It makes a great substitute for soy sauce in any dish. Enjoy!

Asian Sesame Salmon

1 tbsp coconut aminos

1lb salmon fillets

For the rest of the ingredients and recipe, check out the original post at The Cavegirl Dish!

08.11.13 REST DAY

If you’re like me and time is of the essence when preparing meals for your work week, you try to pack in as much as you can into every minute you have.  You multi-task emails, laundry, cooking, and whatever other chores to get the most out of your free time.  Wouldn’t it be great to have your own personal chef???  Well, maybe it’s a bit of a stretch but a crock pot can do wonders to help alleviate your cooking woes.  One of the awesome benefits of using a crock pot is that you can set it and forget it (yea, I sound like an infommercial but it’s true!).  In this specific case, I let my chicken marinate during the day.  Then, it cooked through the night so by morning, all I had to do was separate the chicken into containers for the week.  Another benefit to crock pot cooking, the clean up…or lack of rather.  One pot.  Simple. Easy. Done!

Here’s another recipe from PaleoPot.com that I recently tried.  Ridiculous is one word that describes this tender and flavorful chicken dish.

Ingredients

• One large free-range organic whole chicken. Size accordingly to your crock pot.
• Dry rub (black pepper, sea salt, chili powder, cayenne powder, ground cumin). I used about a teaspoon each of salt, pepper, cumin, and a tablespoon each of the chili powder and cayenne .
• 1/2 cup of lime juice (about 2 limes).*
• 1 extra whole lime for stuffing inside your chicken (yes that makes 3 limes total).
• 2 generous handfulls of fresh cilantro.
• 3 cloves of garlic.**
• 1 tbsp of olive oil.

*It took me 3 limes to get 1/2 cup of lime juice.

**I used 6 cloves of garlic but I’m a garlic freak.

Directions for this recipe can be found here.  Check out the rest of his website for more yummy recipes including Cinnamon & Cayenne Sweet Potatoes and Apples and Paleo Hungry Man Sweet Potato Casserole – not for the faint of appetite!

WOD 08.02.2013

Back Squat 3 x 5

Then:

5 Cleans, 5 Rope climbs

4 Cleans, 4 Rope climbs, etc…down to 1

Men’s weights 165-185-205-225-245

Women’s weights 115-125-135-145-155

Eggs in a Nest

I’ve posted about Paleo Parents in the past and raved about the resource that it is for how to teach the importance of eating healthy to  your kids.  Just having one little tyke, I can start to imagine how tough it can be to juggle multiple little ones, busy schedules, and demanding jobs.  Luckily, Matt and Stacy (the Paleo Parents themselves) published a great cookbook entitled, “Eat Like a Dinosaur” filled with easy, delicious recipes with fun names.  It even suggests ways to involve your children in each recipe!

Because they understand how hard it can be to transition children from the SAD (Standard American Diet) to a clean one, the first chapter talks about realistic ways to do this.  For example: including bringing your kids to the market and having them pick out their fruit, or (even better) growing some of your own.  They also sprinkle a bit of tough love in there about tough choices parents have to make when it comes to what kids eat (ie “Tony Danza is not the boss…you are”).

I love the book so far and made Eggs in a Nest for breakfast the other day.  Cade loved the meat muffins (yes, he is his father’s son) and they were super easy to reheat for snacks (and travel easy too!).  Here’s an excerpt from the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 nitrate free loose sausage
• 12 eggs
• 2 T olive oil

1.  Grease muffin pan. **
2. Press a spoonful of sausage into the muffin tin to make a muffin ‘cup.’ **
3. Drop an egg into each cup and drizzle olive oil on each egg. **
4. Bake at 350 for 23-28 minutes.
5. Cool and use a butter knife to pop them out.

**Steps for kids to help with.

A few other recipes I’m dying to try are their various jerky recipes, grain-free granola, and coconut ice creams! You definitely don’t need to have kids to use this book! You can buy it here at Paleo Parents.

Wish Frances a Happy Birthday! He’s had quite a year with the new addition to his family. Hope you have a great day!

WOD 07.30.13

Press 3×5 or Wendler

Nasty Girls
3 Rounds
50 Squats
7 Muscle Ups
10 Hang Power Cleans (135/95)

Here’s a video of some CrossFit OGs demoing the WOD at the original CrossFit gym in Santa Cruz.

Happy Independence Day everyone! I hope everyone gets to enjoy a fun and safe long weekend with family and friends. Today I’m sharing a very filling recipe that was one of my favorites growing up, pistachio chicken. It’s pretty simple to make and doesn’t require a lot of ingredients. Because the chicken is coated in fatty pistachios, one piece is very filling, so a little chicken goes a long way.

Ingredients:

-          Chicken breast strips

-          Shelled pistachios (TJ’s sells them already shelled in raw or roasted and salted, both work for this recipe depending on your saltiness level preference)

-          1-2 eggs

Instructions:

-          Pre-set the oven to 350 ^oF

-          Put pistachios in a plastic bag, cover with a towel and hit with a hammer or meat tenderizer to crush. Leave some chunks and allow for some of it to become pretty fine so it sticks to the chicken. Once they’re crushed, place in a bowl.

-          Put some olive oil in a frying pan on medium to med-high heat

-          Dip chicken strip into egg and then in the bowl of crushed pistachios to coat the strip

-          Fry the chicken strips on both sizes so that the outside of the chicken is cooked, and then place fried chicken strip in a glass baking dish. Add any pistachios left over in the frying pan to the top of the chicken strips in the baking dish.

-          Cover the baking dish with foil to keep in moist and bake for 20-40 minutes depending on the thickness of the chicken strips.

-          Serve with a vegetable like grilled asparagus and enjoy!

WOD 07.04.2013

“Deck of Cards”

Each team will be provided with deck of cards. Each suit is assigned a movement and the number on the card is the number of the specified movement that each person will perform, with aces being “1” and face cards being “10.”

Hearts:

A – wall balls

B –  air squats

Diamonds:

A – burpees

B –  push-ups

Clubs:

A – v-ups

B –  sit-ups

Spades:

A – c2b pull ups

B –  pull ups