Today, I made the most AMAZING soup! It sort-of happened accidentally, but it ended up being one of the best things I've ever prepared. It's an Italian Wedding Soup... rich with spinach and hearty "sausage" (I used turkey sausage)... total comfort food and very filling! Try it out!
K... here's what I used:
2 cups Organic chicken broth (the kind i used had too much salt so next time I think I'll see how the low-sodium stuff is, if I can find it natural)
Natural turkey sausage (this stuff I found was marked as "turkey Kielbasa", but I'm thinking next time I'll make my own out of ground turkey and spices rolled into small balls and baked to firm them)
A fistfull of fresh baby spinach (the more the merrier for italian wedding soup!)
A whole chopped white onion
1/2 of an orange bell pepper chopped
A handfull of white mushrooms, sliced
As long as the meat you're adding is pre-cooked, all you have to do is throw all this stuff in a pot and simmer for about 20-30 minutes or until the mushrooms and onion are soft.
The meat and spinach are what make this "italian wedding" basically.. but they also add a sweet element to it. The onion and bell pepper should balance out the sweet, but I'm sure there's other stuff that could be added to this :)
Next time I plan to make the meat part myself... and I also plan to make a TON of this stuff so I can freeze some for later times! When you're Paleo, you gotta start thinking about how to plan for FAST MEALS on days when you don't have time to cook. Just remove the container from the freeze the night before and put in the regular fridge part. The next day, just heat and eat... so simple!
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
Paleo-who-what?
So, hi folks!
In a nutshell... this is just a blog I wanted to start to track my success, failures, recipes, progress, etc. for this new lifestyle that me and the man in my life (my fiancee Ben!) have endeavored to try... and fall in love with.
You ready for it?
The Paleo Diet!
I'm not going to take the time here and explain what the Paleo Diet IS. You can Google it.
I'm not going to take the time to argue the various little nitpicky stuff you could possibly argue about this diet. It's a personal choice...
I am going to post recipes here.
I am going to talk about how the diet makes me feel.
I am going to post my weight/measurements with each post so you can see for yourselves how my body is responding.
Basically.... just consider me a really big guinea pig... and here are the hardcore lab results if you need some proof or a little encouragement to eat and live better.
So... with all that mumbo jumbo out of the way... lemme tell you bit about myself.
Age: 28
Height: 5'8"
Weight: currently at 160 lbs.
Approximate dress size: 12
I am a SOUTHERN woman. Born, bred... still livin' the dream on sweet tea and boiled peanuts... well sort-of. I smoked on and off since I was 14 but quit last April... so me and Ben are currently smoke-free.
About 3 times a week I do an intense cardio early-morning bootcamp with several of my girlfriends at 6 am.
I started the bootcamp about two months ago. At the time I weighed 168 lbs. For the first month, I changed NOTHING about the way I eat. I lost no weight, no inches... and sort-of, kind-of felt a little better... but not really. And my "feeling" better I mean... I had no energy. Bootcamp was zapping it all out of me. Every time I went.
One week and four days ago, Ben and I were coming back from a road trip and had a couple hours to kill and talk in the car. He has this awesome friend, Chris, who's be doing the Paleo Diet for over a year now and swears by it. So, Ben brought it up and we discussed. We decided that a diet which included all the MEAT we could get our grubby hungry hands on was OK by us. We immediately stopped at our local farmers market to stock up for the onslaught.
That was one week and four days ago. At the time I was 168 lbs. Five days into our diet, we decided that Friday nights would be our "cheat" night. Where we could go out to eat, enjoy cheese, drink beer, have whatever we want as long as it was relatively healthy (so it's not like I can just have chocolate cake for dinner of Friday, right? haha!). We ate Mexican food with nearly two baskets of fried corn chips and cheese dip, tacos etc.
11 days.
I lost 8 pounds in 11 days.
Despite the one day of cheese dip and corn chips.
People always talk about the folks on The Biggest Loser dropping pounds really quickly at first. You always hear people give is this "Well they're obese and that's what happens to obese folks when they finally start losing."
I wasn't obese by any sense of the word. Not at all. I was (am still) overweight for my height... I'll give you that. But I was totally shocked to see the number on the scale dropping down like my ghetto bootie on 90s dance night.
Ok.. so that's enough to get you started. I'll leave it to you to make assumptions as to why those pounds came off so fast. Coulda been the Diet Coke obsession getting replaced with black coffee and water. Coulda been the resistance to my nearly undenyable daily cravings for sweets. Coulda been the elimation of starches and most processed carbs.
I dunno.
But what I do know is that the pounds didn't begin to get lost until I started on this diet.
----
But, Brooke... isn't all this weightloss and talking about pounds kind-of superficial? Didn't you say something earlier about ENERGY?
Oh yes.
The energy!
For those of you who aren't currently on this diet... I cannot describe the energy to you. I just cant.
Before, it wasn't there. Now it is. It's a new kind of energy. It feels almost... clean. My insides feel clean. My muscles are poised to move and work now... where before they were kind-of half-listening... and I could almost hear them sigh with disdain each time I began to use them.
Alertness... check.
Stamina... check.
Clean-feeling... check.
Rigor... check.
Contentment... check.
Anguish... nope.
Unbearable hunger... nope.
Tiredness... nope.
General hating-my-life-cuz-I'm-on-a-diet feeling.... um... nope!
---
Now, a couple disclaimers...
Seriously try to BALANCE what you eat. Just cuz you can eat all the eggs you want doesn't mean you should. I am saying this because for the first 5 days, we didn't buy enough meat to get us through. We had plenty of salad fixin's and fruit and nuts, though. I developed heartburn and a nice case of the... well... I'll just say "cha cha cha" and you can figure it out on your own... because my stomach wasn't adjusting to this new high-acidic thing quickly enough. I soon discovered that eating savory stuff like meat, mushrooms, eggs, etc will quelch all that. Now, I've learned to balance and we're doing just fine.
Allow yourself to break some rules, people. Give yourself that "cheat" day. Add a tiny pinch of salt to that boiled egg. Go ahead and have a few ounces of soy milk with that soy cappucino (otherwise, it wouldn't be able to be a cappucino, now would it?). But do it in moderation. One teeny tiny cheat a day... one bigger cheat a week. That's my plan.
---
I'll leave you with a recipe that will probably be the single-most food-related life-altering discovery I've ever made.
Homemade Mayo
200 ml oil (olive oil is the healthiest. If you use canola oil, PLEASE be sure to buy 100% pure canola- otherwise you're running the risk of it being a high percentage of soy oil or even corn oil)
2 egg yolks (some recipes say to use the whole egg... but not this one!)
3 teaspoons lemon juice (this is about a half of a fresh lemon if you squeeze it well)
pinch of salt
Mix yolks, lemon juice and salt ONLY in a bowl until it thickens. Use an electric beater (a beater is the best but you can also make this in a blender on a low beat) and add the oil in DROP by DROP until it is all mixed in. The yellow color will gradually fade with all the oil. Seriously... DROP by DROP. You have to be patient but it is SOOOOO worth it.
Makes about 1/2 of a cup and you can keep it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Use this basic mayo to make all kinds of stuff... add more lemon and blend in some basil for a fish sauce/glaze, add "ranch" spices to make ranch dressing (my Ben really misses ranch dressing!), red peppers for a creamy veggie dip... the possibilities are endless, really!
Think of it as a dairy-free alternative to all those milk-based condiments or sauces you would normally use.
In a nutshell... this is just a blog I wanted to start to track my success, failures, recipes, progress, etc. for this new lifestyle that me and the man in my life (my fiancee Ben!) have endeavored to try... and fall in love with.
You ready for it?
The Paleo Diet!
I'm not going to take the time here and explain what the Paleo Diet IS. You can Google it.
I'm not going to take the time to argue the various little nitpicky stuff you could possibly argue about this diet. It's a personal choice...
I am going to post recipes here.
I am going to talk about how the diet makes me feel.
I am going to post my weight/measurements with each post so you can see for yourselves how my body is responding.
Basically.... just consider me a really big guinea pig... and here are the hardcore lab results if you need some proof or a little encouragement to eat and live better.
So... with all that mumbo jumbo out of the way... lemme tell you bit about myself.
Age: 28
Height: 5'8"
Weight: currently at 160 lbs.
Approximate dress size: 12
I am a SOUTHERN woman. Born, bred... still livin' the dream on sweet tea and boiled peanuts... well sort-of. I smoked on and off since I was 14 but quit last April... so me and Ben are currently smoke-free.
About 3 times a week I do an intense cardio early-morning bootcamp with several of my girlfriends at 6 am.
I started the bootcamp about two months ago. At the time I weighed 168 lbs. For the first month, I changed NOTHING about the way I eat. I lost no weight, no inches... and sort-of, kind-of felt a little better... but not really. And my "feeling" better I mean... I had no energy. Bootcamp was zapping it all out of me. Every time I went.
One week and four days ago, Ben and I were coming back from a road trip and had a couple hours to kill and talk in the car. He has this awesome friend, Chris, who's be doing the Paleo Diet for over a year now and swears by it. So, Ben brought it up and we discussed. We decided that a diet which included all the MEAT we could get our grubby hungry hands on was OK by us. We immediately stopped at our local farmers market to stock up for the onslaught.
That was one week and four days ago. At the time I was 168 lbs. Five days into our diet, we decided that Friday nights would be our "cheat" night. Where we could go out to eat, enjoy cheese, drink beer, have whatever we want as long as it was relatively healthy (so it's not like I can just have chocolate cake for dinner of Friday, right? haha!). We ate Mexican food with nearly two baskets of fried corn chips and cheese dip, tacos etc.
11 days.
I lost 8 pounds in 11 days.
Despite the one day of cheese dip and corn chips.
People always talk about the folks on The Biggest Loser dropping pounds really quickly at first. You always hear people give is this "Well they're obese and that's what happens to obese folks when they finally start losing."
I wasn't obese by any sense of the word. Not at all. I was (am still) overweight for my height... I'll give you that. But I was totally shocked to see the number on the scale dropping down like my ghetto bootie on 90s dance night.
Ok.. so that's enough to get you started. I'll leave it to you to make assumptions as to why those pounds came off so fast. Coulda been the Diet Coke obsession getting replaced with black coffee and water. Coulda been the resistance to my nearly undenyable daily cravings for sweets. Coulda been the elimation of starches and most processed carbs.
I dunno.
But what I do know is that the pounds didn't begin to get lost until I started on this diet.
----
But, Brooke... isn't all this weightloss and talking about pounds kind-of superficial? Didn't you say something earlier about ENERGY?
Oh yes.
The energy!
For those of you who aren't currently on this diet... I cannot describe the energy to you. I just cant.
Before, it wasn't there. Now it is. It's a new kind of energy. It feels almost... clean. My insides feel clean. My muscles are poised to move and work now... where before they were kind-of half-listening... and I could almost hear them sigh with disdain each time I began to use them.
Alertness... check.
Stamina... check.
Clean-feeling... check.
Rigor... check.
Contentment... check.
Anguish... nope.
Unbearable hunger... nope.
Tiredness... nope.
General hating-my-life-cuz-I'm-on-a-diet feeling.... um... nope!
---
Now, a couple disclaimers...
Seriously try to BALANCE what you eat. Just cuz you can eat all the eggs you want doesn't mean you should. I am saying this because for the first 5 days, we didn't buy enough meat to get us through. We had plenty of salad fixin's and fruit and nuts, though. I developed heartburn and a nice case of the... well... I'll just say "cha cha cha" and you can figure it out on your own... because my stomach wasn't adjusting to this new high-acidic thing quickly enough. I soon discovered that eating savory stuff like meat, mushrooms, eggs, etc will quelch all that. Now, I've learned to balance and we're doing just fine.
Allow yourself to break some rules, people. Give yourself that "cheat" day. Add a tiny pinch of salt to that boiled egg. Go ahead and have a few ounces of soy milk with that soy cappucino (otherwise, it wouldn't be able to be a cappucino, now would it?). But do it in moderation. One teeny tiny cheat a day... one bigger cheat a week. That's my plan.
---
I'll leave you with a recipe that will probably be the single-most food-related life-altering discovery I've ever made.
Homemade Mayo
200 ml oil (olive oil is the healthiest. If you use canola oil, PLEASE be sure to buy 100% pure canola- otherwise you're running the risk of it being a high percentage of soy oil or even corn oil)
2 egg yolks (some recipes say to use the whole egg... but not this one!)
3 teaspoons lemon juice (this is about a half of a fresh lemon if you squeeze it well)
pinch of salt
Mix yolks, lemon juice and salt ONLY in a bowl until it thickens. Use an electric beater (a beater is the best but you can also make this in a blender on a low beat) and add the oil in DROP by DROP until it is all mixed in. The yellow color will gradually fade with all the oil. Seriously... DROP by DROP. You have to be patient but it is SOOOOO worth it.
Makes about 1/2 of a cup and you can keep it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Use this basic mayo to make all kinds of stuff... add more lemon and blend in some basil for a fish sauce/glaze, add "ranch" spices to make ranch dressing (my Ben really misses ranch dressing!), red peppers for a creamy veggie dip... the possibilities are endless, really!
Think of it as a dairy-free alternative to all those milk-based condiments or sauces you would normally use.
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