Salmon Florentine

If anyone is looking for a delicious dish for this evening - eat this! It's the perfect mix of veggies, fish AND wine :) Well almost...I prefer red, but cooking with white always brings out a nice flavor and I am not opposed to pairing a nice chardonnay with my meal. Especially, when having fish! I stole this little gem from CrossFit Santa Cruz Central and made it my own....check it out!

Recipe (Serves 2):

2 salmon filets

1 T olive oil

1/2 yellow onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 C sun-dried tomatoes, packed in oil

9 oz. mushrooms, sliced (I used a mix from whole foods)

9 oz. baby spinach, fresh

1/4 C coconut milk

3 T white wine

spices: about 1/4 tsp. each!

sea salt (optional, I omitted)

pepper (fresh ground)

cayenne pepper

paprika

garlic powder (I omitted and used an extra clove of garlic

I also added a few handfuls of pine nuts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a saute pan, heat olive oil, and saute onion... add garlic, and cook until translucent. Add sun-dried tomatoes and mushrooms. Add a splash (about 3 T white wine), cover and cook for about 5 minutes, until mushrooms are soft and tender. Now add spinach and cook until wilted. Pour coconut milk over everything and mix well. Pour all ingredients onto a baking dish. Place salmon filets over top of spinach mixture and sprinkle with spices. Bake for 15 minutes.

Voila! Paleo Top Chef material :)

Playing recipe catch up

Yikes, I have been so bad keeping this thing up to date! I've played with a few great recipes lately and will try and get most of them up this week. This Sweet Potato Hash recipe turned out really really yummy. I found it on Livestrong.com, which has quite a few good paleo recipes. This one is a perfectly sweet and salty mixture for a cold winter day. I ate it for dinner and then re-heated it the next day for a mid morning high protein snack.

Ingredients - Serves 2-3

1 large sweet potato

2 links of italian turkey sausage (can use pork or chicken as well)

1 tsp Coconut Oil

2 tbsp of cinnamon

1 tbsp of nutmeg

Directions 

Pour coconut oil or non-stick spray into your pan so that your hash doesn't stick. Get out your cheese grater and grate your sweet potatoes straight into your large cooking pan. Throw your uncooked ground sausage into the same large pan. Cook all together over med-high heat. That’s right… grease and all! It will take about 10-15 minutes to cook this down. Sprinkle cinnamon in while cooking. 

I ended up cooking the sausage a little by itself, in order to drain some of the grease off. I was nervous about it being too greasy. Once it was about halfway cooked, I added it to the sweet potatoes. 

Workout log

12/11 Saturday 

A1 – 30 second AMRAP of: Kipping Pull-ups (rest 30 seconds) x4 10-9-9-8 

A2 – 30 second AMRAP of: Burpees (rest 30 seconds) x4 11-11-10-10

For Time: (5 min cap)
50 Power Cleans (155/105)

I subbed overhead squats for power cleans, to save my back. 

50 OHS @85 4:45

Post - Reverse Hyper - 15-10-10

12/10 Friday

Front Squat 3-3-3 (95-115-135)

20 min AMRAP of:

10 Box Jumps (24″)

15 Underhand Med Ball Tosses (10′ target)

30 Air Squats

50 Single-Unders

6 rounds and 22 air squats. The med ball underhand tosses were just pure evil. Tried to focus on keeping my back very straight, tight core. Had some lower back pain the next day, but not too bad.

Cashew crusted Tilapia with sauteed garlic Kale

I bought tilapia this weekend in an attempt to buy something different with intentions to cook it differently than I have before. I've definitely been stuck in a salmon/halibut rut so I wanted to try something new. What's great about tilapia, is that it is a very bland fish which takes on whatever flavor you are cooking it with very well. I found a recipe online at grouprecipes.com that included cashews and modified it to make it paleo. The outcome was a deliciously mild toasted nut taste that complemented my garlic sauteed kale very nicely!

Ingredients
1/2 cup almond flour
1 1/2 tsp pepper (I used sparingly)
2 large eggs (I used egg whites)
2 cups finely chopped raw cashews (I found 1 cup to be plenty for two filets)
2 tilapia filets
2 Tbs butter (I used olive oil sparingly, because I was already getting plenty of fat from the cashews)
1 lemon halved

Using a fork, stir flour and pepper in large plate to blend. Whisk eggs in a medium bowl to blend. Place Cashews on a large plate. Dredge tilapia in flour mixture, then dip in eggs to coat. Press both sides of the fillet into the nuts.
Add oil in heavy skillet over medium heat. Add tilapia to skillet and cook until coating is lightly browned and fish is cooked through - about 5 min per side.
Place on a plate, squeeze a little lemon on it and serve.

Kale - clean and tear kale apart with your hands. Place in skillet with olive oil and saute it up! Add diced garlic, cayenne pepper and whateva else you want.

Sea Scallops

12-3-10 Day late blogging this one! 

I got the taste for scallops yesterday, because Miss Megs Toal sent me a recipe that looked scrumptious!
I went to Whole foods for the ingredients (thinking I had several at home) only to find that I did not. Oopsies. So...I had to make some mods....thanks for the idea Megs!

Scallops
(Serves 1-2)
7 Sea Scallops
1/3 coconut flour
1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon of Mrs. Dash Salt Free
light dashing of pepper
coconut oil

I mixed all the dry ingredients together in a medium sized bowl. In a pan, I heated up coconut oil on medium high.I added the scallops to the mixture one at a time, making sure to roll them around and fully coat them in the mix. Once fully coated, I placed them in the pan. Cook for about 2-3 minutes on each side for a nice searing. I served atop arugula, but you could eat them plain too. These turned out really rich. Very yummy!!

Ground Lamb with Pumpkin

Ground Lamb and Pumpkin
(Serves 4)
1 lb ground lamb (I bought lean ground lamb from wf)
1 zucchini, diced
1/2 red onion, diced
2 tbsp fresh parsley, minced (oopsies, i forgot to add this, ha!)
1 tbsp fresh mint, minced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cayenne pepper

Heat oil in a large skillet, add onion and garlic and saute for 1 minute.  Add lamb and cook until the lamb is almost done.  Add the remaining ingredients, mix well, cover and let simmer together for 2 minutes or until the zucchini is tender but not mushy.

For the pumpkin, use 1 small sugar pumpkin.  I peeled the skin completely off. Cut the pumpkin in 1/2 and removed the seeds. I then cut it into bite size cubes and put into a skillet with Coconut Oil and sauteed until tender. I added cinnamon and nutmeg. Once it became soft, I mashed in the pan.

This was the first time I have ever cooked lamb! To be honest, I really don't like the smell of lamb. I expected to not like it when I tasted it, but it tasted really good! The pumpkin was a nice addition to the meal.

Garlic and Dill Salmon with Broccoli

Not the prettiest food ever.....but it tasted good!
Garlic and Dill Salmon
(Serves 2)
2 salmon filets
2-3 tsps. Dill (I used dry Dill)
4 cloves of garlic (chopped)
lemon olive oil

Broccoli side - I used three medium sized broccoli florets. Cut off the stem and added them to a separate skillet with olive oil. Sauteed on medium low for 4-5 minutes.

Drizzle the olive oil into your skillet. Place salmon filets into skillet and put heat on medium. Press chopped garlic and dill into each salmon filet. Turn over and do the same to the other side. Cook until salmon is no longer translucent. I like mine a little cripsy!

Chicken Chili Soup

Ingredients 
(Serves 6)
3 cups chicken breast, cooked and chopped (I cooked in my cast iron while the onions were sauteeing)
1 onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeno or Fresno pepper, seeds removed and finely diced (I did not remove the seeds, whoah spice...whoah)
1 4 oz can of diced green chilis
4 cups chicken broth
2 tbsps olive oil
2 tsps ground cumin
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Fresh cilantro, diced
Avocado, diced

In a large soup pan, sauté the onion, garlic, and jalapeno together in the olive oil until the onions are tender.  Add the canned green chilis, cumin, oregano, cayenne pepper and black pepper.  Stir together and add the chicken broth.  Bring to a boil, turn down to medium low, and simmer for 10 minutes.  Add the chicken and cook for another 5 minutes.  Serve with fresh cilantro and avocado.
Enjoy!