Hello Happy Hydrators!

SO excited to be sharing with you for the 3rd day in a row! I WILL accomplish my goals in 2012.   On goals, just so everyone stays in the loop, I have an appointment next week to do a walk through at the Unity Shoppe! They have a big event coming up and the executive director said they could use my help. Wee! Check!

I have a couple of success stories that just make me want to jump for joy.

My husband's Mother (love you Mimi), after extensive berating and having to listen to me babble on and on about Paleo this, Paleo that has taken the plunge! She's been updating me on Paleo dinner menu's and mentions feeling a lot better even after only a week or so! The best part is that she's realizing how delicious the food she makes is.

The other success is that my friend and kick-ass workout buddy (and by buddy I mean she crushes me) Cris, has committed (and yes honey, I'm telling everyone about it so you're accountable- muah ah ah ah) to a 2 week Paleo challenge beginning Saturday the 7th and ending Friday the 20th.

Everyone reading, share your support!  These 2 stories are SO exciting because I've struggled with finding the thin line of being preachy and being effective in sharing my excitement.  I think my long term plan to help facilitate a healthy inner circle of friends and family is to lead by example (thanks Jen) and learn more about the Paleo lifestyle everyday so I can rapid fire as needed as questions come up.

Thank you so much to the both of you for challenging yourselves and striving to be healthier.  I can't wait to hear all about your successes and how amazing you feel!

COOL, moving on.

Okay, remember how yesterday I said I was struggs with my new stainless AllClad cookware? Well, it happened again.  And if you want to ask Jeremy how frustrated I get when a dish doesn't turn out the way I planned, you may and you will get an interesting and possibly theatrical description as to what goes down.  But for purposes of point, I will tell you now that I FREAK THE F*#% OUT!  If you asked me what my least favorite things were in the world I'd say messing up a meal and elevators (more on that later).

It's needless to say that I'm too hard on myself in the kitchen (either that or Jeremy's palate is incredibly forgiving).  First of all, I like to think of myself as an executive chef in my own kitchen and chefs make mistakes.  Second of all, I'm dealing with a whole new medium here, an AMAZING medium.  People say that once you master the art of stainless cooking all the Lululemon in the universe (in your size of course) comes floating down on you from the heavens- or something like that :).  But really, I feel like I'm herding kittens in a catnip factory trying to cook things in the stuff!  So a new goal of mine for 2012 is to become the pack leader (of my pots and pans of course, silly Cesar) again in the kitchen.   I plan to do some researching and trial and errors this weekend so I'll let you know how that turns out.  Note to hubby- do we have a fire extinguisher?

When all was said and done we ended up with a decent end product last night and another successful Whole30 day.

 

Paleo Bison burgers 

Get It:

  • 1lb Ground grass fed bison
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 cup almond flour
  • 5 Slices bacon (nitrate and nitrite free)
  • 2 Portabello mushroom caps
  • 2 tbsp walnut oil (or your fat of choice)
  • 1 Large shallot- diced
  • 1/2 Red onion
  • Handful field greens
  • 5 Grape tomatoes- sliced
  • 1/2 Avo- sliced
  • Salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, ground mustard

Do It:

  • Place the bison, shallots, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, ground mustard, eggs and flour in a large bowl.
  • Mix well WITH YOUR HANDS (food tastes better this way :)) and form into patties.  I made three but you could make 4 if you wanted.
  • Heat your fat and pan fry the burgers on medium heat until medium done (about 6 minutes per side).  You can also grill both the Portabello mushroom and the burgers if you want.
  • Preheat the oven to 450.  Drizzle walnut oil and salt and pepper on the shrooms and place them in the oven for 15 minutes.
  • Whilst the burgers are cooking and the shrooms are-a-bakin' prep your accouterments.  Feel free to go wild here but I used "go greens" salad lettuce from Whole Foods, avo, bacon, red onion, grape tomatoes, all natural ketchup (no sugar added, be careful and read your labels with ketchup; they throw in all kinds of nasty shit), stone ground mustard.
  • Place the shroom on the bottom, top with greens then burger, then bacon and serve.

Side Note: This dish was originally a FIASCO because I'm still learning about my AllClad pans!  First off I only used one egg and that didn't hold anything together.  When I tried to flip the first burger it fell apart.  SWEET.  TheeeEEEEeenn, as I flipped I realized that they hadn't browned even a tiny bit! So I left as is and turned up the heat ever so slightly, seriously.  Worked on my cabbage salad for about 4 minutes and BAM burned on one side! So now as I'm scraping the burnt shit pile from my beautiful new pan I attempt the flip again assuming I've at least got some char holding this mess together- wah wah wah nope! At this point, I'm pretty sure I jumped up and down a couple times and pretended to throw the wooden spoon at the oven but I reclaimed my composure and carried on.

Eventually, with some prodding and poking I got them to stay together and they weren't terrible but where did I go wrong???  All the sites say to heat your pan first, then add your fat- I did that.  They also say to let the pan and the fat cool a tiny bit before adding your whatever- I did THAT.  They also, also say to use lower heat than you think you should because heavy bottom stainless transmits heat really evenly- I..did...that.. Obvi, I'm open for pointers here people.  Coming from a family of excellent chefs, this is naaaat cool, I feel like I'm failing :(.  Onward!

Bison Burgs

Not-So-ColeSlaw Cabbage Salad


Get It:

  • 1/4 Head of red cabbage- chopped
  • 1/2 Head of green cabbage (I like the really wrinkly kind from WF, not sure what it's called)- chopped
  • 1 Honeycrisp apple- diced
  • 3 stalks green onion
  • 1/2 avocado
  • Small handful walnuts (or any other nut but no peanuts)
  • 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1/2 lemon- juiced
  • 1/4 cup walnut oil
  • Salt and Pepper

Do It:

  • Mash up the avocado and mix with oil, lemon and salt and pepper.
  • Chop up all other ingredients and place them in a bowl.
  • Add avo "dressing" and let chill in the fridge for about 1/2 hour.  Pull out prior to dinner time and adjust seasoning if necessary.

Live to Thrive

-Lauren

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