Fall recipe

This recipe was inspired by an article in the Democrat and Chronicle. I've been meaning to make it for several weeks, and since I had a ton of schoolwork this weekend, cooking seemed like the perfect way to procrastinate.

I tweaked the recipe to paleoize it. It was delicious- quite rich, in fact. It would pair perfectly with roasted chicken or turkey!

Ingredients:
1 large butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into chunks
1 onion, chopped
1 cup chicken stock (I use this brand because it has the least amount of additives and weird ingredients)
1 cup coconut milk (I used the light kind)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1t grated lemon zest
1/4c loosely packed fresh sage


-First, use a food processor to "rice" the squash: pulse it until it roughly resembles grains of rice. I recommend using roughly 6 cups of riced squash... because that's how much I used.
-Saute the onion in the olive and coconut oils until it becomes translucent. (About 5 minutes) I used an electric frying pan. You want to cook this in something pretty big.
-While that is going, combine the coconut milk and the chicken broth in a small saucepan and heat on the stove. When it gets hot, you can set it aside.
-When the onion looks cooked, add the riced squash to the pan and stir it continuously enough so it never sticks to the bottom. Cook it for about 5 minutes.
-Add the coconut milk/chicken broth mixture by ladleful into the pan. Continue to do this until the squash no longer absorbs any liquid and the texture of the squash is tender but not mushy. For me, it took about 8 minutes. If the squash gets dry and you've already used all your liquid, you can add a few tablespoons of water.
-Stir in the lemon zest and the sage. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

In terms of measurements, my recipe made 6 cups of food total. So per half cup serving, it is 2 blocks of fat and 1.5 blocks carbohydrate.

Jambalaya recipe

So dig this: I planned to make jambalaya this week, before I even knew that yesterday was Mardi Gras! How inadvertently festive of me! I based my recipe off of this recipe. But my version is way better. I zoned it out with the intention of blogging it for my Crossfit Rochester friends; the full recipe makes a 12P/6C/12F pot of deliciousness. I split it up into three tupperwares of 4P/2C/4F meals.



1.3 links Andouille sausage (I got mine from Trader Joe's. 1.3 links happened to equal 4 blocks protein)
6oz. shrimp (I started with about 9oz raw, so it would cook down to 6oz)
4 oz. chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces (again, I started out with about 6oz. raw)
2/3c onion
2c chopped bell pepper (I used red and green)
14.5oz can diced tomatoes
4c riced cauliflower
4 cloves garlic
1.5c chicken broth
1T +1t olive oil
1t thyme
1.5T parsely
2t chili powder

Put the olive oil in a large frying pan and cook the chicken. When it's almost done, add the peppers, garlic, and onion and sautee until the onion becomes translucent. Then, dump everything into a large pot along with the diced tomatoes, chicken broth, and spices. Simmer for about 20 minutes while you rice your cauliflower in the blender. (I bought 2 small-ish heads to make the 4 cups of "rice", and I had some left over.) Add the cauliflower to the pot and keep simmering while you cook the shrimp in 1t olive oil. When they're done, dump 'em in the pot. Add more spices as you see fit. When the cauliflower is cooked enough, it's done!!

*the original recipe called for less spices and less garlic, but I thought it needed more. At the end, I was practically dumping chili powder into the pot to make it more spicy. Finally, I found some "cajun barbeque seasoning" in the cabinet and used a liberal amount. That was key. The final result was so delicious.

Enjoy!

Pizza pizza pizza

Pizza is:
A. Heavenly and delicious
B. Something I want to eat every day
C. Kicking and screaming in protest to its being lately listed as a sometimes-food
D. What my family had for dinner tonight.

Evil Fem wanted a slice, or four. But Focused Fem decided, for the sake of her 4 remaining workouts this week, to eat something nutritious that will power her through deadlifts and a hard paddle tomorrow. Aka not pizza..... Pizza salad!! While no substitute for real pizza, it was tasty and filling.

Ingredients:
3c shredded lettuce in a large bowl
1c finely chopped myriad of green, red, yellow, and orange bell peppers
1/4c (or less) finely chopped onion
basil
oregano
garlic
2t olive oil
1/2 serving 50% reduced fat pepperoni slices, finely chopped
1/4c mozarella cheese
1/2 can of diced italian tomatoes
3oz cooked shredded chicken


Toss the peppers, onion, pepperoni, basil, and oregano in a pan with 2t olive oil. Sautee them and then put them over the 3c lettuce. Next, put the diced tomatoes, garlic, and chicken in the pan and sautee for awhile. Add that to the bowl of goodness and top with cheese.

For those who are zoning I've rudimentarily calculated this meal to be 4 protein, 2.5 Carb, and 2.5 Fat

Crêpes

Wednesdays are my day off. So after my best efforts to sleep in (I have about an 80% failure rate) I usually take the liberty of eating something more interesting than my usual breakfast fare. This morning I made crêpes! We used to have these all the time as kids, and they were known to us as Swedish pancakes.

The recipe is easy: 1/3c flour, 1 egg, and 1/3c milk or buttermilk. Then grease a circular frying pan and pour in a tiny amount of batter-- when you tilt the pan around, the batter should just barely cover the surface. I cook it at relatively high heat until the egdes curl up a little and the underside is crispy. Then flip and repeat. It's a pretty easy concept but there's some finesse involved in making them perfect. We (my brother and sister and I) used to eat these with maple syrup but this morning I went for nutella and bananas. YUM!

Evil food

Jim calls desserts "evil food," and I think it's hilarious. Lately I've been trying to steer away from baking evil food, but today I couldn't resist autumn's calling, and whipped up a batch of pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.

I changed the recipe quite a bit to make it more healthy.

Instead of 4 eggs I used 2 eggs and 1/2c eggbeaters.
Instead of 1.5c canola oil, I used 1c applesauce and .5c canola oil.
Instead of 1.5c sugar, I used 1c sugar.
Instead of 2c chocolate chips I used 1c mini chocolate chips.

This made a significant difference in the nutritional breakdown.

147 calories vs. 254 calories
6g fat vs 16g fat
22g carbs vs 27g carbs
2g protein (same)

Sweet Treats and Rafael Nadal, mmm

Today, finding myself with 30 minutes before the Nadal/Djokovic match starts on television, and with a hankering to create something, I whipped up some culinary inventions.

First, I threw soup in the crock pot that closely resembles this.

Next, I started improvising with nuts and dried fruit. Usually my inventions don't turn out very edible... but these I'd say were a success!

1. Almond fig bites (inspired by this recipe)

1/2c almonds
8 dried figs
small slice orange rind
juice from a quarter of an orange
1/2t vanilla

Put everything in a food processor and grind it for about a minute, or until everything clumps together. Roll the "dough" into small balls and cook on a greased cookie sheet for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

2. Chocolate-peanut-date bites

1.5 T cocoa powder
1/4c coconut
1/3c chopped dates
2t water
1/4c peanut butter

Again, just grind it all up until it sticks together, form the mixture into balls, and cook at 350 for 10 minutes.

You could also eat these raw!! They would just be a little sticky.

Jon's Pasta recipe

Since I've been posting recipes lately, here's a hilarious conversation that I had with Jon on the phone 10 minutes ago.

JON'S PASTA RECIPE

Emily: Hey Jon, so I'm making my pre-race dinner! Mac and cheese with tuna in my hotel room microwave.
Jon: Ok....
And I was just calling to find out how you cook pasta in the microwave.
What? *laughs* Um, with water?
No I mean like, how do you do it? What's the method?
I wasn't aware I had a method.
Well how much water do you add?
Uh, well make sure the water covers the pasta.
But like how much?
I dunno I've never measured. It depends. I just kind of put some water in there.
Well what if you add too much? Then do you have to pour some water off afterwards?
Yeah, I usually strain off the extra water with some tupperware or something.
Okay, how long do you cook it for?
Depends on what kind of pasta.
It's macaroni
I don't really know
Well, give me a ballpark figure here. 4 minutes? 20 minutes?
Try 6 to start.
What size bowl do I use?
Well it's definitely going to boil over. You need to use a huge bowl.
Uh oh.
It won't taste very good but it'll get cooked.

Eggplant Parmesan

Another recipe comin' at ya.

My Mom's Amazing Healthy Eggplant Parm
(made from honest, happy Amish eggplants)

1. Wash eggplants and cut them into thin rounds.
2. Set out a pie tin filled with buttermilk and some skim milk (to thin the mixture just a bit)
3. Set out another pie tin filled with bread crumbs, italian spices, and parmesan cheese.
3. Dip the eggplants in the milk mixture, then the breadcrumb mixture; then set them on an un-greased cookie sheet.
4. Bake at 400 degrees until they start browning a little, then flip them and do the same for the other side.
5. In our oven, it usually takes close to an hour to bake.
6. Serve with my mom's mostacholi sauce (Sorry, that one's a secret!)

The milk instead of oil and baking instead of frying makes this super healthy. The eggplant is not goupy and soft like in a restaurant, which I appreciate.