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!