Paleo Banana Cream Pie

Oh my goodness, this was absolutely heavenly and didnt feel paleo at all (probably because its only paleo in ingredients, not in concept). The crust was the essential piece in this, and adding in the dried fruit gave the pie a distinctive taste that was perfect with the mellowed banana and coconut cream topping.

Crust:
1c walnuts
1/2c assorted dried fruit
1-2 tbsp animal fat

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix walnuts and dried fruit in a blender or food processor. Remove and knead in the animal fat. Press into a 9-inch pie pan and bake for 10 minutes. Remove and let cool on a rack.

Banana Layer:
10 ripe bananas
1 tbsp animal fat
1-2 tbsp honey or mable syrup

Warm half the animal fat in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add in half the bananas and cook for about 5-10 minutes, until they are golden brown. Add in the remaining animal fat and bananas and cook until everything is soft, with a little carmelization beginning. Add in the maple syrup and stir. Pour the banana mixture into the pie pan on top of your crust and set aside to cool.

Coconut Cream:
3 cans of coconut milk (or 2 cans of coconut cream)
1 tbsp assorted spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, allspice ect)
1/4c maple syrup (preferably maple sugar if you can find it)
4 egg yolks

Put the coconut milk in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. This will separate the water from the cream. Skim the cream off the top (usually about the top 1/3 of the can) and save the water for some other purpose. Put the cream into the pot and add spices and maple syrup. Stir over medium heat, uncovered for about 20-30 minutes, trying to remove as much water as possible from the mixture. When it begins to thicken put the four egg yolks in a bowl and add a few spoonfuls of the hot mixture to temper the yolks. Whisk quickly, add a few more spoonfuls and whisk quickly again. Then, very slowly while stirring vigorously, add the tempered egg yolks into the coconut cream mixture. Cook for another 2 minutes, being sure not to let the mix bubble. Pour on top of the banana layer and refrigerate a few hours, preferably overnight.

Slice and serve!

Thanksgiving Recipes

Date Night Recipes

We had a wonderful time entertaining people for a four course fundraising dinner a couple of weekends ago. I've been so busy with everything that I am just now getting around to posting about it! The dinner would be perfect for a date night where you want to impress that certain someone, eat paleo, and not have to explain your diet. It consisted of a fall salad, pumpkin soup, fig and onion pork and pumpkin custard! Below are the recipes and images, please donate to my cause if you like them, any amount helps!

Fall Salad

Ingredients:

1 apple

1 beet

4 c mixed greens

1/4 head purple cabbage

1/2 scallion

1 chicken breast

1 tbsp marjoram

1/2 lime, juiced

1/4 c oil

Check ingredients

Chop mixed greens in thing 1/8 inch strips. To do this, hold a handfull of the mixed greens against the cutting board exposing only a thin strip from under your fingertips, and chop near your finger tips. Do the same with the cabbage, and chop the length of the cabbage strips down to about 2 inches. Julienne the beet, apple and scallions. Add all ingredients and half of the dressing into a small bowl and toss thoroughly. Press salad mix into a serving size cup and quickly turn over onto the serving plate, shaking lightly to allow the pressed salad mixture to release. 

Over medium heat, cook the chicken breast in oil. When just cooked through, remove and slice the breast. Add a few slices of chicken breast to each salad serving and drizzle remaining dressing over them.

Pumpkin Soup with Candied Sausage

3/4 c coconut cream (You can also refridgerate/freeze a can of coconut milk and skim the cream off the top)

16 oz pumpkin, purreed

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 large carrot, chopped

1 shallot, chopped

2 c soup stock

1/2 lb sausage, casings removed

1 tbsp maple syrup

Add celery, carrot and shallot into an oiled skillet and cook until browned. Add in pumpkin puree and soup stock and bring to a boil. Blend, add in coconut cream. 

Meanwhile, in a seperate skillet over high heat cook the sausage meat, mixing often and seperating it to make a ground beef texture. Finish over very high heat to make a crunchy outside. Remove from heat and stir in maple syrup. Place blended soup into a bowl and top with the crunchy sausage pieces. 

Fig and Onion Pork

12 dried figs (keep them whole)

3 c apple cider

3 tbsp oil of your choice

1 large onion, cubed

2 Granny Smith apples, cored and cubed - leave the skins on

2 cloves chopped garlic

1 tbsp fresh sage (this ingredient is the deal maker)

2-4 lbs pork loin

1 c white wine (or red, depending how you feel about whites)

Twine

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a medium pot combine the figs and apple cider, simmer over low heat while covered for about 25 minutes. Then uncover and reduce until there is only about 1/4c of liquid remaining (this takes another 25 minutes or so) - this is your most delicious fig syrup!

In a large oiled skillet brown the onions, apples, sage and garlic. Remove figs from the syrup, remove stems, cut up and add into the mix. Set the pan aside to cool.

Open up your pork loin, stuff with the onion-apple mix and tie closed. (mine was really two 2inx8in pieces, so I made a sandwich out of them)

Heat a dutch oven over high heat and add a little oil, sear the stuffed roast on all sides, about 2 to 3 minutes each. Add in any remaining onion-apple mixture that didnt fit inside the pork and place in the oven uncovered for 15-30 minutes (make sure the internal temp reaches 135)

Remove the prok and place on a dish to cool. In the dutch oven, add in the fig syrup, wine and remainin apple cider and reduce over high heat, scraping the burnt bits of the pan during the process. Spoon the mix over the cooked pork and serve!

Pumpkin Custard

1 Can pumpkin puree

1c coconut milk

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp cloves

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Mix pumpkin puree with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. Add in beaten eggs and mix well. Add in coconut milk, pour batter into a 13x9 pan and bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake for  20-30 minutes. Remove and let cool. Serve.

Fall Paleo Dinner

If you like the recipe below, or any of the others I have posted so far (like Vietnamese chicken soup or Mango Butternut Squash) please donate to the Melanoma Foundation for my Boston Marathon Burpee Madness bid! 100% of the donations go towards upstream education and social research on Melanoma prevention, Im funding all of the recipes and training fees on my own.

Im looking forward to cooking my first fundraising dinner in two weekends, Im serving 4 couples on Saturday and currently 2 on Sunday, with the hopes of raising $300-500 for the Melanoma Foundation! The courses are going to be a fall dinner salad, pumpkin soup with candied sausage, pork roasted in fig and onion sauce and pumpkin custard - I plan on doing a few dinners over the next months leading up to the marathon and finally make the paleo parties cookbook! Here is a teaser of the salad, it was incredible, light, crunchy, a little sweet and a splash of tangy.

What you need:

1 package of washed salad (I prefer the non-Iceberg type)

1/4 of a purple cabbage

5-10 strawberries

1 apple

1 tbsp Marjoram

1 tsp lime

4 tbsp oil (you choose what works for you)

1 tsp various italian seasonings

How to make it:

Shred the lettuce by holding a fistfull against a cutting board and slowly feeding it to the knife. Do the same with the cabbage, strawberries, and apple. Toss with remaining seasonings. Pack into a small cup and turn the cup over onto your plate. Voila, a simple and delicious salad!

Omelets!

If you like the breakfast idea below, or any of the others I have posted so far (like Vietnamese chicken soup or Mango Butternut Squash) please donate to the Melanoma Foundation for my Boston Marathon Burpee Madness bid! 100% of the donations go towards upstream education and social research on Melanoma prevention, Im funding all of the recipes and training fees on my own.

Mmmmmm breakfast! Its the best meal of the day and can really get you off to a good start, especially when you dont have to cook it! Omelets stuffed with everything left in the fridge, kiwi, oranges and bacon!

Chicken Casserole

If you like the recipe below, or any of the others I have posted so far (like Vietnamese chicken soup or Mango Butternut Squash) please donate to the Melanoma Foundation for my Boston Marathon Burpee Madness bid! 100% of the donations go towards upstream education and social research on Melanoma prevention, Im funding all of the recipes and training fees on my own.

What you need:

1 lb of chicken tenders, chopped

3 large tomatoes, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 c Flax, grinded

1 tbsp Rosemary

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp pepper

How to make it:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, mix all the ingredients and let sit for 10 minutes. Bake for 20-30 minutes until chicken is just cooked, draining any excess liquid every ten minutes. After removing it from the oven, allow it to set for a few mintues, season to taste and serve!

Weekend Training Fun

Wow, it was a great 3-day weekend and I got in only 1 workout, but it was totally killer, thanks to Charles River CrossFit. The workout was "Cletus" 21-18-15-12-9 of thrusters (65#), box jumps, Sumo dead lift high pull and situps, with a firm 30 min cap. While talking to Mel before the workout she mentioned it was only 15 reps more than Fran...I politely reminded her that it was in fact 30 reps longer than Fran, and that's a lot when your in the midst of them. By the last 9 thrusters it was muscle failure and sheer mental power to get the job done. I wasn't even able to workout a 3-3-3 rep scheme, and had to fight it out 1 rep at a time, but still finished before the cutoff which was a huge boost!

We cooked tons of great food and now we will have recipes throughout the week! Chicken casserole, meatloaf, artichoke salad and omelets are one the roster!

Artichoke Salad is super simple, just spinach, tomatoes, shredded carrots, peppers and sliced artichoke hearts on a bed of spinach. I always hear requests for salad dressing ideas, but I often just eat it plain, enjoying the crisp clean taste of the healthy veggies.

Pumpkin Pie Pudding

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. The weather is brisk in the morning and perfect in the afternoon. The scenery is a beautifl array of multi-colored leaves and pumpkinas are in the market. Pumpkin pie is my absolute favorite dessert, and have recreated it with a paleo (or primal) twist. With no crust it is really less of a pie and more of a pudding or custard, which is fine by me!

If you like the recipe below, or any of the others I have posted so far (like Vietnamese chicken soup or Mango Butternut Squash) please donate to the Melanoma Foundation for my Boston Marathon Burpee Madness bid! 100% of the donations go towards upstream education and social research on Melanoma prevention, Im funding all of the recipes and training fees on my own.

What you need:

1 16 oz can of Pumpkin (or 16oz fresh pureed pumpkin)

1 12 oz can of Coconut milk (Paleo) or evaporated milk (primal)

1/4c honey

2 eggs

1/8c minced raisins

1/4 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Ginger - the secret ingredient!

How to make it:
Preheat the oven to 415 degrees. In a medium mixing bowl add in pumpkin, spices, eggs and raisins, mix well. Stir in honey and milk. Put the mix in a greased pie pan and bake at 415 for 15 minutes, then lower to 350 for another 25 minutes, until the pie sets. It will cook faster than a normal pumpkin pie since there is no crust.

With a 9in pan we got a pumpkin bread pudding type of texture and flavor. If you want it to be a bit thicker in consistency try using a much larger pan (like a 9x13 pyrex). I tend to love the top skin, so Im certainly going to try this next time.

A big thanks to my little sous chef, who did a great job adding the perfect amount of spices and cracking eggs like an expert!

Don't forget to donate to the Melanoma Foundation for my Boston Marathon Burpee Madness bid, every little bit counts! Feel free to spread the word about the crazy girl doing up to 351 burpees while running a marathon - all for a good cause!

Deadlifts and Burpees

Today was my fourth workout in so many days, which I think is a real improvement from my training routine of late! We hit up and evening at CFB with sprout in tow and got in some bench presses and then a brutal heavy deadlift and burpee workout. The workout was: 7 rounds for time of 3 Deadlifts (155#), 7 burpees over the bar, I finished in 6:38 and think my burpees will really benefit from it!

I was perusing the TED talks more (I love watching TED talks) and saw one of Jamie Oliver talking about teaching our kids about food. I thought it was a great awakening to what is going on not inly in America, but also around the world, as other cultures are beginning to eat our diet of sugar, corn and processed ingredients. I found it incredibly alarming that a majority of kindergarten students were unable to identify what I consider as staple vegetables, tomatoes, mushrooms, brocolli etc. Sometimes I find Jamie's personality a little abrasive, but find it easy to really get behind him, both on his shows and on this talk. If we just started cooking from home, with whole ingredients, we would be so much healthier as a nation.

I don't quite understand the time or cost factors in not cooking from home (although I do understand the accessibility issue). For example, tonight for dinner we had chopped cauliflower mixed with a quarter head of cabbage and some delicious beef. It took no more than 20 minutes to prep and cook, maybe another 2 cleaning up after, and cost less than $15. Now, $15 would be expensive if I was just feeding myself, but I fed my hungry, bottomless pit husband and our bean sprout - now its not looking so expensive, especially considering when we go out to eat it costs at least $20 from our favorite local "fast food" restaurant and takes easily 20 minutes to get down there, pickup our order and get home. Bottom line is, we have to start teaching our kids, friends and family how to cook again, and how to make delicious food easily, with few ingredients.

 

Grilled Bananas and Weekend Workouts

My weekend training has, so far, consisted of the grinding Hero workout Joshie: 3 rounds for time of 21 R arm snatches, 21 L-pullups, 21 L arm snatches, 21 L pullups. Its not really a workout you can go all out in, in fact, I dont think my breathing got labored at any point, mainly because sheer muscle fatigue sets in so fast that you can no longer snatch the weight or do the L pullups in a fast manner - so I ended up running at a cool constant pace and finishing in the 25 minute arena. I'm planning on doing some hill sprints with burpees at the top tonight after the little one goes down for the night!

Grinding through the L-sit pullups, although I'm not quite strong enough to hold the L 

Grilled Bananas: These were AWESOME and so simple I can't believe I haven't been making these all summer, and sadly grilling season is nearing a close. The bananas get so nice and goey and sweet its hard to believe they have literally just one ingredient. Plus, clean up is a snap! No grease or foil required, just put the bananas on the grill for about 5-7 minutes per side, cool and serve, now really, could dessert get any easier or healthier?

Please take a minute to look around my site and think about donating to the Melanoma Foundation!

***UPDATE***

We actually got out and did a mini workout after dinner tonight. We live at the bottom of a hill, so we did 3 rounds where we ran up and over the hill and back, tagged our partner and did 25 burpees, then rested until our partner was back from the run. It was just shy of a half mile for the out and back segment with 141 ft of elevation. Great workout and a great way to get some burpees in for the day! Im just stoked that we actually got out there and did it!

Watched a great TED talk about our evolution, hunting and barefoot running. While I wont be running Boston barefoot, I will be running in minimalist shoes from Vivo Barefoot!

Butternut Squash Recipe

Thanks so much to everyone who has supported the Melanoma Foundation cause! Please join our mailing list, or pass along my blog to anyone you might think interested. Don't forget to donate a burpee along the marathon route! 100% of the donations go straight to the Melanoma Foundation! Or, if you like the recipe, feel free to donate what you think it is worth to my cause! Even $1 adds up!

Tonight I invented an easy butternut squash dish. I think its the perfect fall dish, a little sweet and a bit savory and completely yummified. It would go great as a side to roast rosemary chicken or a roasted leg of something or rather.

What you need:

2 tbsp grease (butter/bacon grease/coconut oil)

1 Butternut squash, peeled and sliced

5 scallions, minced

3-6 oz dried unsweetened Mango, chopped (add more for a sweeter dish)

1/4 c white wine

*I got my unsweetened mango from Trader Joe's and I know Whole Foods also sells unsweetened dried mango. Other than these two places, the dried mango I have seen always has a bunch of sugar added.

How to make it:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In an oven proof pan and lid, heat the grease over medium, add in butternut squash, scallions and mango and cook over high for 4-5 minutes, until the bottom of the squash gets a nice golden brown. Cover and put in the oven for ~15 minutes. Add white wine and keep in oven for another 10 minutes, or until the squash is soft. Remove from oven and let sit for ~5 minutes (mostly to cool off some) and serve! 

Like the recipe? Donate any amount to support my Boston Marathon bid! All donations are 100% tax deductible and go 100% to the Melanoma Foundation!

First Run to Work

This morning I decided that it was time to begin running more, so my husband packed up our little one and joined me on a run into my work, which is 3 miles on the dot from home. It took us just under 30 minutes which I am happy with considering the stops for lights we had to take and what not. My speed is good for the first portion (maybe the first mile or so) but then I tend to die out.

Evan pushed me to doing up tempo sections which were killer, but really helped me. Although the worst up tempo/sprint we did was up heart break hill, since I work right at the crest of it. At least I will get lots of practice with it! My distance and endurance really need to be worked on, and I'm hoping to hit up my school gym later to do a second workout, Im thinking about CrossFit Bostons workout from yesterday, Cleans, Tabata burpees and a 2K row - although all that depends if I can get the time away from my experiments!

CrossFit Maniacs (?)

There was a recent article published in Huffington Post by Penny Love Hoff called "Is CrossFit Only for Maniacs?" She refers to CrossFit as a fitness program for "audacious radical fitness zealots". She states that while researching CrossFit, she read a summary on the CrossFit main site (Greg Glassman's 100 Words) in which she agrees with almost every point. However, she then goes to the internet to check out what CrossFit is all about, I should preface, there are a lot of you tube videos out there that would put anyone off of CrossFit. Videos of kids trying to lift much more than they should and having incredible fails, people flaunting their mashed up hands or throwing their head into a bucket, etc etc. This is really the extreme of CrossFit - not the norm, and certainly not something to judge the whole community by. 


Yes, CrossFit can be done on your own, in your garage, and that is one of the big things that they tout as a huge plus. But CrossFit embodies more than fitness. It embodies a community of driven, hard working, intelligent and innovative people - just check out the microeconomy that CrossFit has grown, with companies that create custom athletic journals, clothing, gear, jewlery, food, even their own groupon like site. 


CrossFit embodies a belief that we should give back to our community at large. An event entitled Fight Gone Bad raises millions annually for organizations such as the Wounded Warriors Project, Special Operations Warrior Foundation, Infant Swimming Resources and Camp Patriot. When the helicopter of seals was downed and all 31 aboard perished, CrossFit quickly raised hundreds of thousands for the families through the 31 heroes events. This month, hundreds of boxes around the world will partake in Barbells for Boobs, a fundraiser for breast cancer awareness. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how CrossFit gives back to the community at large. 


CrossFit embodies the knowledge that we can always be better then what we are now. We can always try harder, we can always lift a little more weight - even if just another pound, we can always go a little faster - even if just by a second. It embodies the idea that we should always give everything 100%. CrossFit is never easy, you may get faster at the workouts, or lift heavier weights, but it will never be easy.


CrossFit celebrates everyones strengths and weaknesses, it preaches the value of scaling workouts. Pushups on your knees, pullups with bands, lighter weights, shorter distances - the ultimate goal is always to do a workout as Rx'd, but it teaches you to get there in steps, rather than leaps. 


Does that sound like a community you would want to be involved in? HELL YES! Will you work hard and see major fitness gains? Surely. Will you gain mobility and see a decrease in physical ailments? Highly likely  Is it crazy and just for maniacs? Certainly not!

A CFB workout

Last night I hit up CrossFit Boston for a killer workout. I saw there was running in it, and decided to get my butt over there, since I figure, any amount of running mixed with CrossFit is gong to be a good thing for my training. It was great to workout in their new space (which is totally killer by the way) and Monica was coaching - its always a pleasure to be in one of her classes! We worked a lot on the POSE running method, with about 15 minutes of drills, I'm hoping that I can lock down the POSE method before the marathon. While critiquing my form, Monica mentioned that it seems my left leg has it down! The workout was:

4 rounds for time:
400m run
15 Thrusters (65#)
15 Pullups

I managed to finish it in just over 26 minutes, but good lord were my legs obliterated after that! I am debating running home from work today as a way to work out some of the muscles, but who knows how last nights workout will set in!

I also want to send out a HUGE THANK YOU to Jill, Linda and Audrey as my first three donations! Audrey bought two burpees for me to do, just because she likes to see me suffer - Ill be sure to have a smile on for those ones hehe!

Vietnamese Chicken Soup

Im contemplating creating another paleo cookbook as a way to raise some money - since it helped me raise $2500 for Fight Gone Bad before. An idea I'm toying with is finally finishing my Paleo Parties book, the recipes have all been written, but I gobbled up all the food before taking all the tasty pictures (in my defense, I was pregnant at the time). That means a lot more eating in and breaking out my apron once again! Below was a great dish I made, that very well make it into the date night section, especially for any non-cooks trying to impress their significant others. Without further ado, Vietnamese Chicken Soup (its paleo, but if you aren't paleo, you can add in bean sprouts and water chestnuts!)

What you need:

4 cups chicken broth

4 chicken breasts

1 onion, chopped

1 tbsp Fish sauce (for paleo peeps, this you have to find specially since most contain sugar as an ingredient)

4-5 tbsp Mint, chopped

4-5 tbsp Cilantro, chopped

1 tsp peppercorns

4 inches of ginger, peeled

1 Lime, wedged

How to make it:

In a soup pot add the chicken broth, peppercorns, half the ginger, fish sauce and chicken and put over medium heat. 

In a skillet sautee the onions until golden, toss them in with the soup. Mince the remaining ginger and sautee until golden as well. Toss it in with the soup. 

When the soup boils, the chicken should be nearly cooked, if it isn't wait a few more minutes. If it is, take it out and shred it (to do this, use two forks, one holds the chicken in place, the other scrapes at it until the chicken falls apart)

Put in the shredded chicken and mix well. Serve with the fresh herbs and squeezed lime juice and voila! You have a quick, awesome, delicious meal!

Like the recipe? Donate any amount to support my Boston Marathon bid! All donations are 100% tax deductible and go 100% to the Melanoma Foundation!

Up and running

I found out on Friday that I would be getting a charity bib for Melanoma Foundation, so its time get serious about my training. I'm fairly nervous for two reasons: 1. I've never run a marathon and 2. The burpee madness idea could be the death of me. I just have to remember how hard all cancer patients have to fight every day and how miserable they must feel as the drugs are helping them get better, and that anything I might endure will pale in comparison. I've started trying to do burpees every day. I managed to crank out 100 yesterday and 101 today, so as long as I keep this up I think I will be OK on this front. Major problem about the 201 burpees I have done so far? I did them barefoot, and now have some great feeling rips on the bottoms of my big toes...apparently I need to toughen up my feet! I did some sprints yesterday for running and plan to follow CrossFit Endurance for the running portion of my training. My good friend Neal Thompson of CrossFit Boston has offered to help me create a training program, which will certainly put me in shape!

So far on the fundraising front I havent gotten my feet beneath me. I started a mailing list so I can send newsletters to all interested parties and created this blog. Hopefully soon I will have my donation pagerom the Melanoma Foundation and can start raising money!