Pulled Pork

This recipe was AH-Mazing! 

I made it back in March when it was still chilly outside. I'm a little behind on the blog, don't judge me! 

I pulled the recipe from two separate sources. The slow cooked pork recipe, I've been using for year's, is a variation of my mom's: 

Serves 8-10 

Ingredients

Pulled pork ingredients

• 1 pork shoulder or butt roast, about 5-6 lbs
• 3 tbsp paprika
• 1 tsp fresh sage
• 3 cloves chopped garlic
• 1 tbsp dry mustard
• 1 medium size onion diced in larger slices
• 1 bay leaf
• Dash of pepper

1. Prepare the dry rub by combining the paprika, sage, mustard, pepper and chopped garlic in a bowl.
2. Rub the pork roast all over with the spice rub. If you have time, you can place in the refrigerator for the flavors to penetrate the meat for a minimum of 1 hour, but up to overnight. If I don't have the time, I'll just place immediately into slow cooker on high for 3 hours, then low for 2 hours. 
3. I typically add a little water, or chicken broth in the bottom of the slow cooker so nothing sticks, place your chopped onions (sometimes I'll add mushrooms too) around the pork. Once these start to simmer, they will help with flavoring the meat. 
4. While pork is cooking, make your sauce from the recipe below. 
5. Once pork is cooked, pull apart with two forks and allow to simmer in the sauce for another hour.

BBQ Sauce ingredients

The Paleo BBQ sauce (zesty, just the way I like it) I grabbed from "Son of Grok".

http://www.sonofgrok.com/2009/06/sog-zesty-bbq-zauce/

It did not disappoint! Good BBQ is all about the sauce. I paired with a side of sauteed Kale. Yummo.

The Lam-urkey loaf

Found this recipe randomly....it was originally a greek style Lamb meatloaf, but I modified a few things to make it paleo and left out the tzatziki sauce. Serve with a fresh salad. It was very yummy!

Ingredients
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, diced

1 can artichoke hearts, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp. pepper

3 dashes of dried basil

3 dashes of turmeric

2-3 dashes red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup milk (I used coconut milk)
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 cup almond meal 

1 lbs. ground lamb 

1 lb. lean ground turkey

2 egg. slightly beaten

Directions 

In large frying pan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook until soft. Add celery and garlic and cook until celery is soft. Stir in the artichokes, pepper, basil, and cinnamon.
Stir in milk and tomato paste. Remove from heat and let cool. In large bowl, combine the vegetable mixture and almond meal with the lamb and turkey and egg.
Place in a large loaf pan. Cover with foil and bake in a preheated 350F oven for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and bake another 25-30 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes. Drain any juices. Let rest another 10-15 minutes before slicing.

Spicy Bacon and Sweet Potato Frittata

This Frittata recipe was so good it brought me out of my blahhg hiatus. I instantly felt the need to share!! I'm back and full of yummy Frittata goodness at the moment.

Spicy Bacon and Sweet Potato Frittata
(Makes 1 frittata)

-1/2 c (heaping) diced sweet potato (keep them small--1/2" or so--to keep the cooking time down)

-2 strips lean bacon, chopped (I subbed Turkey Bacon)

-2 eggs

-1 generous tbsp coconut milk

-2 tsp coconut oil

-1 to 2 tsp cinnamon

-A healthy dash of cayenne pepper

The original recipe calls for sea salt, but I omitted because there is enough salt in the bacon. 


Whisk together eggs and coconut milk in a bowl, and set aside. Heat oil in a large, non-stick pan over medium heat. Add sweet potato and cook until it begins to soften, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes. Add seasonings. Push potatoes to one side of the pan, add bacon, and cook until it begins to brown, 2-3 minutes. Stir potatoes and bacon together and continue to cook until bacon is crispy and potatoes are soft, about 5 minutes. Make sure potatoes and bacon are equally distributed in the pan, then carefully pour egg/coconut milk mixture around the circumference of the pan. Tilt the pan in a circular motion to distribute the eggs evenly. Cook until eggs are set, about 3-5 minutes. Carefully slide frittata out of the pan and onto a plate, and enjoy.

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!!