Day Twenty-Six: Asian Salad with Rainbow Trout

So pulling out another one of my fish fillets, this time trout again, but a different variety, I decided I needed to add another dressing to my repetoire. With a little research I came up with one that combined the nutty and salty flavors often found in asian cuisine.

With almond butter, ginger, olive oil, water and some soy sauce I whipped it all together for a nice touch.
As a base, I used some spinach, avocado, cucumber, chickpeas, red onion and mushrooms. On the trout I rubbed some ginger and black pepper, before tossing it in a pan with a little soy sauce and some garlic. I used the last of my cherry tomatoes, pan searing them for ultimate flavor.

cooking up the trout and tomatoes!

Then I assembled the healthy and filling salad!

Day Twenty-Five: Ground Turkey Sweet Potatoe Curry

Sorry I've been M.I.A. lately, I really underestimated how much time I'd have when life picked back up!
So, an update about the fallout from my boxing adventures: HOLY COW was I sore! The legs, the triceps, but mostly all the tiny muscles in my back that I had no idea I possessed have been SCREAMING at me since wednesday night! Its Sunday and I still feel a little achy!
Getting out of bed Thursday was not fun , namely because moving was paaaaaaaaainful. Gotta love excersize! Its kind of good though, because that one hour of class had some reprecussions, which means that with a little effort, I can get some kind of results. Its a twisted form of motivation though!
So, I have been cooking lately, and I found a few more recipes that I tried out with success.

First up was a Ground Turkey Sweet Potatoe Curry that I found on the Livestrong website. This was great because I got to use my tumeric again, which means I've now found two delicious dishes that it is an integral part of!
The main ingredients consist of Lean Ground Turkey, onion, sweet potatoe and canned tomatoes. Spice-wise I added tumeric, chili flakes, garlic, black pepper, curry powder, cumin, and some ginger.

Browning the turkey in a pan large enough for the whole concoction, I added in my onion and garlic, letting them get soft and cooked up. Then the rest of the flavors went into the dish, along with about a half cup of water, before I added in my diced yam. Then, cover the whole dish with a lid and allow the sweet potatoe to soften. If you don't have a big enough lid, just use some tinfoil, it worked just as well for me!

Garnish with chives and serve it up in a big bowl. You're going to want to make lots, because this dish is really great and reheats perfectly!

Great Indian dish all ready to eat!

Day Eighteen: Squash Spaghetti and CHOCOLATE!

Hello again!
I got a comment a little while ago that I was missing a key component of the day: Dessert! I decided then to make a fully paleo version of chocolate balls, a sort of fudge-y round bite of heaven. But first I needed a good, healthy dinner!

Sauce cooking up!

On a tip from my friend Adrienne, I had bought a spaghetti squash in anticipation of using it as an innovative replaement for actual noodles. Using the rest of the tofu in my fridge (I know, terrible source of nutrients, soy = not good, but as a student, I couldn't justify throwing it out!) I started a delicious sauce. Chopping up mushrooms, zucchini, yellow pepper, cherry tomatoes, fresh basil and shallots, I seasoned the mixture with garlic, bay leaves, chives and black pepper. Letting the vegetables get a little softer, I cut my squash in half (TOUGH to do by the way), scooped the seeds out, and with the oven at 350 I placed each piece face down on a cookie sheet with a little water in it. This went for about 30 minutes, and I added a little more water about halfway through. The topping was then thinned with some chicken stock, before I let it reduce to give it the consistency of spaghetti sauce rather than stew.

Then I scraped out the insides of my squash and assembled my dish! Top with more fresh basil and black pepper to taste and there you have it! Paleo Spaghetti to warm you up on cold winter nights, of which we have many in Canada!

For dessert, as I mentioned, I made some really good chocolate confections. These dont really become hard, and are best kept in the freezer. This also helps them last longer because you don't see them staring at you every time you go into the fridge for a healthy (-er) snack! Very easy to assemble, the hardest part is keeping the batter off your fingers, as it can be very sticky. I find that once mixed, let it sit in the freezer for about half an hour, making it much easier to work with.

Chocolatey Goodness!

Mix a 1/4 cup of cocoa powder with 1/3 cup almond meal in a small bowl. In a separate bowl place 1/4 cup water, 1/8 cup maple syrup and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients, making sure to smooth out any lumps. I like to do this with a fork, but if you were going to make a larger batch you might want to pull out the electric mixer!
Once melded, add a large spoonful of almond butter and repeat the process. Chill the batter and prepare a bowl with some more cocoa powder and coconut flakes. When enough time has elapsed, make small ball shapes out of the chocolate, which should now be much easier to handle! Roll these shapes in the cocoa and coconut for a coating which is both delicious and practical: your balls will stick to the dish you place them in without it. Once you have assembled this, you're ready! Dig in guilt free (just don't go making anymore for a little while!)

I keep the quantities pretty small because I know myself, but if you have more self control I'm sure the recipe could easily be doubled, tripled, or made however big you want. Because these are raw, they keep for a long time, especially if you freeze them. Hypothetically you could keep them at room temperature, but they really don't stay as firm and become messier to eat. As a contribution to a cocktail party, just stick a toothpick in each one and no one will believe that there is no dairy in these babies!
I'm off to fall into a sugar coma, though to be fair it's a naturally induced one! Maple syrup sure is delicious!

Day Seventeen: Almond Pancakes and Trouty Goodness

This morning I woke up well before my alarm, and taking this as a sign that I was meant to devise a breakfast that consisted of more than leftovers and fruit, I began searching for a Paleo Pancake recipe!

Pancake Batter.

Luckily enough, I found one that was perfect for my needs: Almond Pancackes! The only rough patch was my distinct lack of applesauce. Adding a little cinnamon to the recipe, I whipped together two eggs, some vanilla and about a cup and a half of almond meal (my supply is dwindling quickly!), while I microwaved a peeled an cored apple in a covered dish with water for 3-4 minutes. Then, without even mashing them at all, I transfered the now soft apple bits into my batter, and ran the beaters a little while longer to get a smooth(ish) consistency!

With that done, I heated my pan with some olive oil, and grabbed my frozen strawberries, slicing them for optimal distribution on my batter. The pancakes filled the whole pan, so basically I just divided the recipe and found myself with one big plate and one leftover for another morning.

Almond Pancake with Cinnamon, Cocoa and Coconut

These were EXCELLENT! Practically like I remember pancakes but less sweet and more dense. As a topping, finding myself out of both maple syrup and honey (this was pretty much deliberate, as I didn't want the temptation of reaching for one or both in a craving moment!) I sprinkled cinnamon, cocoa powder and some raw coconut flakes ontop! Combined with the strawberries and the apple already in the pancake, my breakfast powerhouse was complete! Mmmmm!

Veggies and Fish working up!

For dinner I decided to get some of those great fatty acids, and pulled my steelhead trout fillet out of the fridge. I used another great Livestrong recipe (tweaked of course): Pan Fried Trout with Tomatoe Basil Sauce. Oiling my pan I threw in some chopped red pepper (about 1/2 of one), garlic, shallots, sliced cherry tomatoes and mushrooms. Then I seasoned it up with black pepper, sea salt and some garlic, before putting about a tablespoon of all natural pesto down and a splash of white wine vinegar. Then in went my fillet, and I let the pan start cooking.

When the trout was cooked through and the veggies were soft, I assembled a few lettuce leaves and transfered it to a plate! Very quick, easy and flavourful!

Day Sixteen: Mexican Taco Salad

So in order to help me keep track of my diet more efficiently, I've set up an account at the Livestrong website, which gives an approximate count on the calories contained in most food! I was a little surprised to find out how many are in an avocado... but that's besides the point! I was ambushed by my roommate today who demanded to know how I'd shrunk so much lately! I feel much better, I've found that I actually feel good about eating instead of feeling guilty, and that my clothes fit a little looser. I bet if I was smart(er) and cut out the booze as well, I'd see a radically different body in less than a month... alas, the bar scene is a bitch.

Today I made Taco Salad, keeping with the ethnic theme started yesterday. Now anyone who has been to a mexican restaurant can tell you, this usually is served in a charming little corn chip bowl, which is probably the best part of the whole dish. That bowl however, is usually deep fried and often made with gluten. I made my version sans adorable food bowl, but it was nonetheless very good!

Again using the Livestrong website, which has a fantastic collection of Paleo recipes, as well as their nutritional information alongside! I decided to whip up some of the Chorizo Shrimp Sautee, and use it as the protein in my salad! Easy enough to make I combined tomatoes, onion, shallots, mushrooms, half a red pepper and two uncased chorizo sausages with some frozen salad shrimp and garlic! In the meantime I assembled my lettuce and avocado, no dressing required as the fats and liquid from the stirfry are more than adequate!

Chorizo Shrimp "Taco" Salad with tomatoes and avocado

I also had to replenish my baba ganouj supply after polishing off the last bath with my remaining raw veggies. New dip to go along with the haul I got from the store the other day!

The seafood component has been pretty weak the past few days, I think tomorrow I'll grab one of the exotic type fish fillets I snatched up! Perhaps try a Mediteranean dish, eh?

Day Eleven: Stuffed Peppers

So day three of the beerfest, and I have indulged again in gluten-free beer, this time a raspberry pepper brew. It's ridiculously hard not to when you work in a microbrewery all the time and have still yet to try one of the homemade beers... this is making up for all of that (or at least, that's how I'm justifying it!) I got home and decided that I needed to remind myself how amazing no-starch food really can be, and therefore decided to make delicious Paleo Stuffed Peppers!

Now this was just a thrown together piece of work, without any real recipe, but as usual my spice cubby was instrumental in making this dish excellent! I combined my essentials: ground beef (President's Choice Free From variety), zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoe and onion. To this mixture I threw in garlic, steak spice and chili flakes for good measure just to get some heat in the dish. Hollowing out my peppers (I chose pretty yellow ones, but I imagine that all of the colours work just as well...), I left the lids intact as a pretty accent to the whole shebang. Preheating the oven to 350, I took an oven safe casserole dish and set my lidless peppers in the bottom, simply placing the lids in the spaces between them. These took a while, but not wanting to take any chances with having the meat come out uncooked, I let them go for a full hour.

Peppers roasting away!

I loved these! The sweetness of the pepper, the spice of the filling, and the general heartiness of the whole dinner was nicely offset by some avocado slices, giving the dish a TexMex type of feel.

Avocado and Stuffed Pepper!

With two peppers leftover, its all I can do to remind myself that I will want to have leftovers, rather than gobbling them up myself!
I need some sort of coping mechanism for those times when I'm not hungry, but eat because I am bored or because I know just how good things taste!

So far I've really found great, easy recipes that turn out beautifully, just like I wanted to; soon I think I'll reward myself at the halfway point with a crack at a real Paleo dessert, and see if my baking skills are up to snuff!

Day Two: Smoothies and Cabbage Rolls

Hello Again! Today I decided due to the crappy weather that I would prepare some delicious Paleo meals, with lots of leftovers so I'll be eating healthy in the coming week when I'm running around with work and school!

Super yummy, Super fruits!

Breakfast started with a hunk of that leftover salmon and a mini cucumber (aren't smaller things more fun??) before I headed to the grocery store to stock up on ingredients!
Getting back I made a really great smoothie out of frozen strawberries, bananas and a nectarine to tide me over until my masterpiece was finished:

Mmmm, now I know there was no protein in there, but it was really delicious and full of good vitamins!

Then I started on these Rice-Less Cabbage Rolls, which I have been dying to try out since my friend began going on and on about the deliciousness of this Cruciferae! I combined tomatoes, oregano, paprika, pepper, red onion, cumin, red pepper flakes with an uncased chorizo sausage (gluten free of course!) and ground turkey while the cabbage started to steam and get a little soft:

Once it was all ready I began the rolling process, which was really a lot easier than I thought it would be! Just put the mixture at the base of the leaf and roll it like a tortilla!

Beginning the rolling process

All nestled in and ready for the oven!

Then I placed them in a dish and covered them with a bit more of the tomatoes (President's choice "no salt added" diced variety), & covered them with some foil before popping them in the oven (350) for 60 min

These were just as good if not better (certainly better for you) than the traditional rice ones! And plenty leftover for those tight jams when I'm just gonna need a quick protein fix! (confession: I ate two straight out of the oven!)

Dinner was the rest of the salmon with a few leafy greens and tomatoes on the side with sesame seeds, and balsamic & oil dressing! Plain and simple for while I'm on shift at work!
I have to say though, I am really looking forward to breakfast tomorrow to see how these cabbage rolls tast cold!