Road Warrior Diet – Strategy For Reaching The 170s

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Packing a few LCHF friendly snacks (which can double as a light meal) for my drive to TX.

Packing a few LCHF friendly snacks (which can double as a light meal) for my drive to TX.

I’m driving to Texas today to help Dr. Mom move. She’s coming to live near me in the Commonwealth of Virginia (Yeah, Virginia is to uppity to be a regular state).

So blogging will be light, although I’m hoping to take a lot of photos, especially of amazingly unhealthy truck stop food that I come across (but won’t eat).

I’m driving for about 2.5 days so yesterday I hit the grocery store for my low carb, high fat (LCHF) road snacks and/or light meals. Read More

Chicken Breast Sautéed in Clarified Butter

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The perfect meal: 4 ounces of chicken sauteed in clarified butter and 4 ounces of fresh, steamed green beans topped with some grass-fed butter. Yum!

The perfect meal: 4 ounces of chicken sautéed in clarified butter and 4 ounces of fresh, steamed green beans topped with some grass-fed butter. Yum!

Tried another fantastic Julia Child recipe last night – skinless chicken breast sautéed in clarified butter (or ghee). The flavors were incredible and with just a half a cup of fresh green beans, one of our most filling and satisfying dinners.

The Julia Child style of cooking always intimidated me. Besides the fear of using so much fat (boy was I wrong!), I think the mystique of French food frightened me off.

Turns out these recipes are so simple I can kick myself for not cooking this way sooner.

I did make one change to this recipe to cut down the carbs. Rather than using 1 cup of flour, I opted for 4 tbsp. of almond flour (one for each breast). That cut the total recipe carbs from 13g to 2g without sacrificing taste. Read More

Eggplant Pizza Snack

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Clockwise from top left: A sweating eggplant piece, fresh tomato sauce, pizza toppings assembled, and the finished product -- Eggplant pizza!

Clockwise from top left: A sweating eggplant piece, fresh tomato sauce, pizza toppings assembled, and the finished product — eggplant pizza!

As you know, I’m all about Julia Child recipes now and here’s an easy, fun one that gets pizza back into my life — Eggplant Pizza. Going low carb means I gave up pizza crust. Well this recipe uses eggplant in place of the carb-loaded bread.

Now we’ve never been huge fans of eggplant. It always tasted a little off to me and my husband. Turns out, you need to use salt to sweat the eggplant before cooking it up. Letting it sit in salt takes out the excess moisture and removes that off-putting taste.

The fun thing about this recipe is that you can pretty much add any seasonings or toppings you’d like. You’re making pizza after all. Read More

Praise The Lard: Beyond Bacon Review

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An amazing Paleo cookbook that convinced us to buy and cook all parts of a pig. Yep, we're going whole hog! One of the best (and prettiest) cookbooks you'll find.

An amazing Paleo cookbook that convinced us to buy and cook all parts of a pig. Yep, we’re going whole hog! One of the best (and prettiest) cookbooks you’ll find.

About 15 months ago my husband and I purchased a large chest freezer and headed out to the Virginia countryside to a local farm where we purchased a grass-fed cow. Actually, we ordered a quarter of a pastured cow. That lasted us for more than 12 months. Now we are considering our next move, and we’ve been seriously thinking about pig. Yep, a whole frickin’ pig.

We love bacon…I mean pork. But my experience with cooking pork is limited to bacon, sausage, bacon-flavored bacon, Canadian bacon, pork chops, and of course bacon.

When it comes to pork, my cooking skills are seriously lacking. Read More

Scotch Eggs! Double Yum!

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My first homemade scotch egg. I love it! So easy to make and so yummy!

My first homemade scotch egg. I love it! So easy to make and so yummy!

I’ve heard of Scotch eggs, but had no idea what the heck they were. I remember seeing them in England during our visit and just remembered lots of ball-shaped breading. Not the biggest fan of English cuisine, I thought some mysteries are best left unsolved…or in this case untasted.

Flash forward 5 years and I’m one food curious chick. With my focus on eating only real foods, on a whim I decided to look up Scotch eggs. Turns out, with a slight change, its perfect for the low-carb way of life. The ingredients? Hard boiled eggs and sausage. Nom nom! Read More

Yummy Mushroom Powder

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This stuff is so delicious and the porcini mushroom aroma is very intense. Perfect blend for chicken, fish, soups, grilled veggies and salads.

This stuff is so delicious and the porcini mushroom aroma is very intense. Perfect blend for chicken, fish, soups, grilled veggies and salads.

As a kid, my only experience with mushrooms was picking them off a slice of pizza before enjoying that first bite. They were just too slimy looking. Yet my parents always ruined perfectly good pizza by always ordering those blasted mushrooms.

Well my hatred of all things mushrooms continued until a year ago. Last May it dawned on me that I never actually ate a mushroom. Was my household ban on all things mushrooms justified? Time for a test. I picked up some baby bellas, sautéed them in butter and served over a rib-eye.

Oh man was I missing out! From that moment my war against edible fungi was over.

I was only too excited when I found this awesome recipe for Magic Mushroom Powder over at Nom Nom Paleo (a kick-ass recipe blog you should follow!) Read More

Dukkah! Nutty, Toasty Spice Blend Makes It All Taste Better

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I made my first ever batch of dukkah, a delicious toasted rub.

I made my first ever batch of dukkah, a delicious toasted rub.

Dukkah! There are lots of variations out there for this nutty-flavored Middle Eastern “dry dip.” Some recipes call for almonds, macadamia nuts or pistachios. Or fennel seeds vs. sesame seeds. Or sea salt or no sea salt. Also the level of coarseness varies greatly from recipe to recipe.

I like the variations. It gives spice-making newbies like me the opportunity to explore and experiment without fear of screwing it up! Read More

Nuts!

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I spent part of the morning weighing nuts before bagging them into single portions. Nuts are a great, healthy snack but be careful about overdoing it!

I spent part of the morning weighing nuts before bagging them into single portions. Nuts are a great, healthy snack but be careful about overdoing it!

I’m busy coming up with quick, easy snacks for the hubby and me. This morning I spent some quality time weighing and bagging some of my favorite nuts – macadamia, walnuts and almonds.

Nuts are a great, healthy snack loaded with healthy fats and nutrients like Vitamins A, E and magnesium.

However it’s easy (too easy!) to devour large amounts without feeling full. Trust me, I’ve eaten jars of peanuts (not really a nut; it’s actually a legume!) in the past.

Lesson learned. Now I bag the nuts into single serving sizes – 1 ounce each.

I use to keep the nuts in a jar on the counter, easy access for a grab-n’-go snack (way too easy!). Now that little jar sits in my pantry. Yes, I still remember where the nuts are, but I’m more mindful before reaching for them. Read More

Avocado & Basil Dressing

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Just combine all of your ingredients in a food processor. You'll have a great tasting salad dressing in minutes.

Just combine all of your ingredients in a food processor. You’ll have a great tasting salad dressing in minutes.

Avocado and basil…two wonderful flavors joined to make a healthy, tasty and creamy salad dressing.

I found it recipe on the Nom Nom Paleo app — a must for every healthy kitchen. An app review is coming soon (hint: it is awesome!).

The dressing reminded me of a creamier version of my pesto, with the avocado flavor taking the place of my beloved walnuts.

It’s a pretty thick dressing thanks to the avocado. If you want it a little thinner, I suggest adding a more lime juice. But not too much more…you really want to keep the great avocado-basil flavors. You can also just use a couple of tablespoons of water.

If you rather not thin it, I’d suggest tossing the dressing and salad in a bowl before serving.

For dinner we had Chorizo-Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms (that recipe will be up tomorrow). I just added a side of mixed greens with tomato and a tablespoon (half the serving size) of the dressing on top. Yum!

Avocado & Basil Dressing
Net Carbs: 1g
Weight Watchers Points Plus: 3
Servings: 2 tbsp/serving (total of 8 servings)

Ingredients

  • 1 medium Hass avocado
  • 1 C basil leaves, packed
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • fresh lime juice from 1.5-2 limes
  • Kosher salt
  • ground black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 1/4 C extra virgin olive oil
  • 1-2 tbsp water (optional)

Directions

  • Remove the skin and pit from the avocado and place in a food processor. Add in the basil leaves, garlic, lime juice, salt, red and black peppers, and olive oil.
  • Mix all the ingredients until well blended.
  • If too thick, try adding water or juice from 1/2 lime.

Enjoy!

 

Awesome Primal Recipe: Guacamole Stuffed-Burger

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This burger taste so amazing. Suggest you make your own guacamole so you can make it chunky style!

This burger taste so amazing. Suggest you make your own guacamole so you can make it chunky style!

Behold! The Guacamole-Stuffed Southwestern Burger.  It’s a thing of beauty and the first recipe I tried since starting the Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge on May 1. Simple to make, healthy and low carb. And oh so delicious.  I ended up topping mine with some fresh salsa.

21-Day Challenge – Day 4
So far my the challenge is going very well. Like I mentioned before, I have the food down (although it’s always good to reinforce good habits!). This weekend I got in some moderate exercise with long walks. But I’m returning to my spin classes this week, so we’ll see if I can moderate my intensity.

As for the Challenge’s 8-hours of sleep, I’m not doing so bad there. I’m getting in 6-7 hours so far. I do need to stop drinking coffee after lunch so I can get to bed earlier.

It’s the setting aside play time that is alluding me. This weekend the plan was to use our hiking day reseeding our backyard. Yes, I consider working in the yard as play time. You got a problem with that!?!

But after loading and unloading a lot of bags of top soil, my husband pulled a muscle in his back. So my planned play time in the yard didn’t happen.

So now I’m doubling up on play time. Saturday is yard day. Sunday we hit Raven Rocks trail.