Trying new things, 2 wins 1 loss

So I thought I'd switch this post up a bit since we've been eating a lot of regular, already mentioned foods most days. In this post I'm going to tell you about some new things we've tried. Some good, some not so good.

Kelp noodles, Win! Kelp is noodles made of seaweed. They can be either clear or green, I've heard the green are much saltier. I found the clear noodles at HMart, an Asian market in Hartsdale. I purchased a 2.2lb bag for less than $4.

To prepare, I took them out of the bag and soaked them in cold water. I used scissors to cut them up because the "noodles" are very long. The initial taste of the bag is interesting, very crunchy and took a long time to break down before I could swallow. Thats when I got nervous! I decided to stir fry these in an oyster/soy sauce with lots of great veggies and some stir fry beef strips. End result was delicious! After cooking for about 10 minutues, they became much more tender, almost like an al dente pasta. They absorbed the sauce nicely. My husband wanted seconds, so thats a win for me and the kelp noodles!


Zucchini, carrot, and onion fritters, Loose! I found this recipe, and picture on facebook. It looked amazing, and totally paleo so I decided to give it a try.
Ingredients: shredded zuchinni, carrot and scallions. eggs and coconut flour. Salt, pepper, garlic.

I mixed all ingredients together, resembled potato pancake mixture. I sprayed the non stick pan with oil oil and spooned in the mixture, pressing down to spread. After about 3 minutes of cooking I flipped them over. This should have been my first sign that things were going wrong, no golden color, just a slight browning, still very soft to touch. After cooking the other side with the same results, I decided to put them in the toaster over to get them warm inside. After cooking on high for over 10 minutes, they still werent hot. I served them with 2 overeasy eggs, that was the highlight of the meal. The fritters tasted like mush. No flavor, horrible texture, and bad composition. They just fell apart, and they looked like crap.  I imagine if I added oil to the pan, they'd be much better, but I didnt want to go overboard with all this "fried" food. Also, Im really not sure I like coconut flour!

Cauliflower Pizza, Not sure if this was smart to try two new things, including coconut flour, in one day. So I must preface this with, not %100 Paleo. My first try was, but it sucked! I will tell you about both.

My first pizza, looked amazing, tasted like shit, and fell apart immediately! 

Recipe:

1 bag of steamed cauliflower, pressed to let out water

1 egg

2tbs of coconut flour

Salt, pepper, garlic, Italian seasoning

Topping: homemade tomato sauce, steamed spinach, black olives and fresh garlic.

Prep and cook: 
Combine dough ingredients and form into a "ball". Lay on wax paper and spread out to look like a pizza crust. Bake at 400 for about 15 mins or until firm. Heads up, it didn't get firm until at least 20 mins in. I then took it out, transferred to a baking sheet and added sauce and toppings. Cooked for 7 mins. Took it out, cut it up, took one bite, ITS NOT DONE! Put it back in the oven for 5 more mins. The "crust" started browning so I didn't want to leave it in too long. Took it out, tried eating it agin, didn't work. Fell apart. Tasted like coconuts. I'm confused because plenty of people have said they don't taste the coconut but for us, it's like being right on the island. So, take one, FAIL!

Take two, recipe:

1 bag of steamed cauliflower, pressed to let out water

1 egg

1/4 cup flour (not Paleo I know)

Salt, pepper, garlic, Italian seasoning

Topping: homemade tomato sauce,

Spinach, homemade bruschetta

Prep and cook: 

Took the same steps as the first try. This time I noticed it resembled more like a sticky pizza dough. It also released from the wax paper a lot better then the fridge dough. I let it cook for about 20 mins so it would hold up the toppings. Added toppings and cooked ten more minutes. Cut and served, YES! Very pizza-like! Yum, and satisfying! I'm proud of this, considering pizza dough is all flour and yeast, I think this is much better since it's all cauliflower and a little flour. 

Do we miss the cheese? HELL YEAH! But this is a close backup for a pizza craving! Will be making this again! 

Back on the bandwagon....

So its been roughly three months since I've lived Paleo. Its been a very difficult time for me to maintain a healthy eating lifestyle. In late February, my husband and I altered our living conditions, in order to prepare for the purchase of a house. On top of that, I also began, what I consider, an extreme lifestyle change, by taking 3 college class. Since then, our eating habits have been less then par. I originally tried to introduce a gluten free eating process, which was expensive but great. Slowly, that too went down the poop shoot, (literally).

Although I only did Paleo for a month and half, it was the best my body has felt in a very long time. Stomach pains and issues went away, sleeping was great, attitude was positive! Since then, I completely notice a difference and that bums me out, which is why I've decided its time to go back. It really isn't hard to follow, just difficult to stick to when the people surrounding you are always eating something you absolutely can't have. I've let myself slip as a means of focusing on other things but I realize now my health is most important, and feeling well is my main goal.

I am excited for this journey, again, and I know I just have to work a little harder to succeed.

For starters, I'm looking up some new recipe ideas and preparing my first paleo meal tonight, YAY!

Almond Milk Yogurt

Woo Hoo, something new to have for breakfast, NOT!

I thought it would be fun to test out a variety of breakfast foods, to switch up between eggs each morning. Considering I love almond milk, I thought this would be a winning choice. Definitely not! 

As I write this, I continue to take tiny spoonfuls, reassuring my disgust for this. I take a small bite, and then hold it in my mouth until I feel I can swallow. This reminds me of the "I Love Lucy" episode "Vitametavegimen", "Its so tasty too, (gulp) just like candy" 

Upon first opening the container, It resembled apple sauce. I bought the vanilla flavored yogurt, figuring it'd be a safe choice. I can see tiny specs of vanilla beans, that's cool, real ingredients! The smell is comparable to regular yogurt, just not as yeasty. Consistency is a little looser then a regular yogurt would be (now I know why I loved Greek yogurt so much more). 

Lastly the important part, the taste! (i'll take one more bite now, just to get it right, ugh) Paint, It literally tastes like paint. Its slightly sour, and instantly breaks down in your mouth.  I tried adding some gluten free granola, obviously not enough, because its still awful.

Darn! I was really hoping this would be my new morning treat. I have a coconut milk yogurt sitting in the fridge, maybe that will be the star....

Cauliflower Risotto

Yup, I said it, risotto made from cauliflower. It was delicious! Very hearty and filling. Below is a link to my inspiration but I will post my recipe for tonight's meal so you can see what I had.

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower

1 10oz package of mushrooms(I used white) roughly chopped

1 medium shallot chopped

2 cloves of garlic chopped

2 cups of chicken broth

1/4 cup white wine

Olive oil

Salt, pepper, parsley

Instructions:

Lightly chop the cauliflower and then place, in two batches, into the food processor and pulse several times to "rice" the cauliflower.

In a large sautée pan, pour a little olive oil and add the shallots, mushrooms and garlic. Stir so they don't burn. Meanwhile get the broth warmed in a pot. When mushrooms are broken down, add white wine. Allow the wine to simmer and then add the riced cauliflower and stir. Slowly add 1 ladle of broth to the pan, until it absorbs. Continue to do so until the broth is completely added to the pan one ladle at a time. It should take about 20-30 minutes. Once all the liquid is absorbed, continue stiring until it tightens up. Sprinkle with parsley and serve!  

(To beef it up, I added some grilled shrimp. For extra flavor you can sprinkle some parmasian cheese or truffle oil on top.)

Here is the original recipe:

http://www.foodiefiasco.com/cauliflower-risotto-with-roasted-mushrooms/

I'm Going Bananas, Literally!!

How exciting is it to eat healthy and get something you crave....ICE CREAM!!

 I love ice cream, as many of you know! I love ice cream so much that we had an ice cream bar at our wedding!

Granted, I used to eat "slow churned" ice cream, which is generally half the fat, and lower sugar, its still not "healthy." I've debated this several times, and every time I hear my husband says "its not healthy, its just not as bad for you as other things."
 So with that, I give you my current post, MY healthy ice cream: Frozen banana and fruit... let me explain!

Sitting at home, feeling sick with a cold, I can't taste much of anything, so for me, I wanted something hot or cold: Soup and Ice cream. Now I was not about to breakdown and buy a sugar/fat/random ingredient filled bucket of goodness...so I started playing around.

Since I make smoothies a lot, I had some frozen banana in the freezer (hint, put them in the freezer sliced, when they're ripe, good and ripe.) I also had some frozen strawberries. I took out the food processor and added a cup of frozen banana and 2 frozen strawberries. I then added just a touch of almond milk. Hit that baby on high and let it go. I had to stop a few times to wipe down the sides, so it would continue to blend, after about 3 minutes, I had what looked like creamy, delicious, pink, soft serve ice cream.
 WOOOO HOOO!

Now some may gamble with whether this is healthy or not, for me, I say yes! 3 ingredients, could be two, if you want it thicker minus the milk. Its totally Paleo, and dairy free, and gluten free, and everything else. Yes, fruit is sugar, but natural sugar.

I will most definitely be making this again, and again, and again!

** Take note of the serving size, just enough to get my fill :-)

Day 17

I cant believe its been more then two weeks now. Feeling great, feeling very healthy, love this! Wishing I was loosing more weight but in general, I'm feeling good. I imagine if I cut out some of the fruit and replace it with more veggies and protein I'll be feeling better. I think its very easy to grab an apple or orange and pack it for lunch, instead of cutting up celery and carrots. I will get better, I just need to invest the time, more time, which im lacking, now that I've started school, but I will make time. (<---run on sentence? )

Its been a long week. And a different week at that. I have officially started college. Every Tuesday and Thursday night I attend college from 7-9:45. I get home around 10ish, depending on when we leave class. It helps me to not eat as much as I would at home, but I sometimes find myself hungry at 10 when I get home. Need to put the kibosh on that!

Meal plan for the day:
Smoothie for breakfast and a LaraBar-for $1.85 each, they better be worth it!

Lunch is a "taco" salad. Seasoned ground chicken, lettuce, tomato, red onion, black olive, avocado with a homemade cilantro lime dressing. (Thanks Babe)

Dinner- Hotdogs, without buns, with sauteed onions and sauerkraut. Sweet potato fries. YUM! As you can see, I try to bring as much normality to our lives as possible. I should note, these hotdogs are ALL BEEF, with no casing.

Days 14, 15, 16 MY BAD

Damn! Kinda disappointed in myself that I havent posted in several days. I guess College really does take most of your attention!

To make this quick, Not really loosing weight, but feeling great, so I guess thats ok, right?

Some of the meals we had in these days include:

Cauliflower Chicken fried rice with Pineapple. Tasty, and really looked like rice!
Sausage and Broccoli Rabe with Mushrooms. YUM, one of our favs, of course we always like it with pasta, but by itself, it was much more flavorful, Lots of fresh garlic helps! Good for the heart they say :-)

Baked chicken, I take the skin off, with plantains (we ate out so im sure they were fried, but very tasty of course). I also discovered this new "dipping sauce" that this mult culture restaurant serves. Its like a vinegar, pepper, scallion, onion mix. I will definitely be trying to make it this weekend!