Paleo/Primal Crock Pot Chili {Recipe} & An Easy Pizza

The last weekend in October Bobby and I went down to NJ to visit my family. My dad sent us back with a late birthday present of CSA meat. Of course I forgot to snap a picture of the delicious chili that I made with it, but here is the simple recipe – based on this primal chili from The Grok Pot (my dad’s suggestion).

Paleo/Primal Crock Pot Chili

Ingredients

1 pound grass fed organic ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup leftover pasta sauce
1 14 oz. can chopped tomatoes (I try to make sure I get mine from Eden foods or other organic companies that don’t have BPA in the cans)
~1 cup leftover veggies (from Chinese food the night before) (optional)
1-2 tiny Thai peppers (optional; you can just add more chili flakes if you don’t have hot peppers)
3 cloves of garlic, mashed and chopped (I use the pre-chopped garlic you get in a jar – sort of cheating but easy!)

Spices

1/2 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cumin
chili flakes
salt and pepper, to taste (1/2 teaspoon salt to start)

Directions

Throw everything in the crockpot and mix a little; heat all day on low OR at high for 4-5 hours.
If you want, you can start to cook the beef and onions to brown them before you put everything into the crockpot. This brings out the flavor a bit more.

We had ours on top of white rice (rice cooker) and topped with shredded cheddar cheese. We also had a salad on the side.

This was a perfectly satisfying meal – and so far we have managed to make it into 3 meals. Once it was the main, the 2nd time was with leftover homemade pizza, and I just had some with a fried egg for breakfast.

Speaking of that pizza…

pizza

I cooked up some pork belly (more CSA meat) and then sauteed turnip greens and scallions in the leftover fat. Slapped some pasta sauce on a premade crust, then topped it with fresh mozzarella, the greens, raw peppers, and the pork – then baked it til done.

Delicious! The side salad is baby mustard greens, raw turnips, and radishes, simply dressed with olive oil and black mission fig balsamic vinegar + salt & pepper.

And as for pregnancy updates – I’m feeling great. I’ll get into details more soon! Just wanted to share these 2 delicious meals this morning.

What have you been eating lately? How is fall treating you?

Loved the extra hour we got this weekend. If only we always needed one less hour of sleep or had an extra hour in the day 😉

20 March, 201325 November, 2014

{Macrobiotic March} Some Macrobiotic Meals (at home and out!)

Those of you who have been following my blog since the beginning may have noticed the shift from eating at home often (probably 5 nights a week) to eating out… a lot. The shift happened slowly over time as I transitioned from my first job in CA, to freelancing in CA (part time), to working full time again when we moved to NYC, to working more and more! I’m not complaining about work. My career is going better than I could have ever dreamed. I love my job and I love my coworkers. I am challenged every day with real problems that I can solve.

BUT – with working so much, I just don’t make the time to cook at home. While I am sure I could make the time, it’s not a priority for me right now.

So I try to find healthy options for eating out.

Keeping with the theme of Macrobiotic March, here are some of my favorite macro meals I have eaten (out) lately. And one macro meal that I made.

A few weeks ago I got lunch with an internet friend (we go back years now) at a vegetarian restaurant in midtown called Zen Palate. The lunch and the company were great. This is what I ordered:

The dish is called Shredded Melody. It’s shredded soy protein stir-fried with celery, carrots, zucchini and pine nuts in a light garlic sauce. It came with a brown and red rice mix and 2 spring rolls. I ate most at the restuarant and had the leftovers at my desk a few hours later.

Another night, after dinner at Souen, Bobby and I shared the Cocoa Creamy Parfait: cocoa mousse with vanilla soy cream and granola.

Really delicious. I do prefer their scones though…

Another night I got takeout from Souen because I was in a rush. I had this meal after a vigorous yoga class at Pure:

Takeout Macro Plate: an ideal blance of steamed greens (collards usually), vegetables (carrots, broccoli), brown rice, beans (chickpeas here – my favorite), and hijiki seaweed.

I also got this dessert the same night…

A Macrobiotic Scone – the cranberry orange version.

Sometimes I do cook at home. One night I made this healthy fried rice variation:

Homemade macrobiotic fried rice with Trader Joe’s Healthy 8 Veggie Mix, Brussels sprouts, sesame seeds, and some teriyaki sauce. Steamed kabocha on the side, and yes I had seconds. I think this was another post-yoga meal.

Another night Bobby and I went to Hu Kitchen, a new paleo restaurant near his office. Hu Kitchen is on 5th Ave between 13th and 14th streets (right near Souen). Hu says, ‘For us, getting back to eating like humans means eating foods we would find in nature or foods minimally processed using only basic, mechanical methods.‘

I got The Herbivore: 3 veggie sides of the day. I picked creamed cauliflower with coconut milk, roasted butternut squash, and sauteed greens. That little brown thing you see is grain-free bread. All of it – absolutely amazing. I could have licked the plate. It’s a little pricey – this dish was $10 and it was not that big. We ended up getting a paleo dessert, too (chocolate chia pudding) but the picture didn’t come out well. It looked like ass so you will just have to trust me that it tasted delicious.

SO – that’s what I have been eating lately. I actually have some more macro meals but I will save them for another time. I have to get to work!

Couple other things I wanted to mention:

I have accidentally been pescetarian this month except for 1 meal (a pasta dish this weekend).
I have had diet soda only 2 times this month. (!) One day that I had it, later on I found myself at the cafe downstairs buying a cookie – the only time I was craving sugar in a few weeks. Coincidence? I don’t think so. I think diet soda makes you crave sweets.
Bobby and I are planning on doing vegetarian April! (Vegetarian = pescetarian for us.)
Elise @ Hungry Hungry Hippie had a macrobiotic-inspired meal the other day. MMM kale.
Heather made those yummy cookies I linked to last week.

Have you had any delicious macrobiotic meals lately? Are you a diet soda person? Do you eat meat and/or fish, or are you vegetarian or vegan?

31 December, 2011

Best Healthy Recipes of 2011 from Salad Maggie

Before you go out to celebrate I wanted to stop in a wish everyone…

Happy New Year!

If you’re looking for some last minute recipe ideas for tonight, or trying to think of your healthy meal plan for next week, check out some of the options below. In the meantime, enjoy the night and stay safe! I’ll be back in the new year with regular posting. Yoga teacher training is over and I am a free woman.

What are you doing for New Year’s Eve?

Bobby and I are heading over a friend’s place for a relaxing evening. There will be wine, champagne, cheese, burgers, guacamole, board games, and good company.

About the recipes: all except the Oaties have no added sugar (or weird freaky sugar substitutes), most are paleo-friendly, and most are vegan or vegetarian.

Potluck BBQ RECIPE: Mexican Couscous and Bean Salad

Cobb Salad

Low-Calorie Tofu Pudding (yum – vegan and sugar free)

Asian Butterfied Oaties (Based on HEAB’s original recipe)

Indian Brown Rice (Whole Foods Inspired)

Butternut Kale Salad (also Whole Foods Inspired)

100-Calorie Cheesecake

Homemade Unsweetened Applesauce

Creamy Cucumber Dill Salad

Peanut Butter Vinaigrette Dressing

Vegan Tomato Peanut Stew

Hot-Cold Salad with Rutabega

26 October, 2011

Pumpkin Porcini Parsnip Soup @ Bis.Co.Latte (Hell’s Kitchen) [Review]

When I used to imagine life in New York, I had visions of Carrie Bradshaw’s brownstone, brunches with friends, and lazy afternoons in Central Park. Over the last two years in this city I’ve learned that while those things do exist, New York is also home to thousands of chain restaurants and dirty alleyways, and it can be hard to find those quaint coffeeshops that everyone seems to think of when they think of the Big Apple. I have a few days off this week due to transitioning jobs (!) and I have been trying to find as many of those small places as possible.

My mom came up to visit me yesterday and left a few short hours ago. This morning we took a walk over to the Hudson River (that’s the one on the West Side) and passed by a charming find – Bis.Co.Latte – it’s a biscotti and coffee shop in my new neighborhood.

Upon entering the shop I was greeted with a smiling face and a display of biscotti – there must be over a thousand of these cookies, in a so many flavors. To be honest I wasn’t there for the biscotti though. I’m simply a coffee girl through and through, and I have been avoiding grains lately anyway (paleo* thing).

So instead of a biscotti I picked up a homemade soup.

Pumpkin Porcini Parsnip Soup (vegan)

This was one of about 6 fresh soups they had available. They also had a pumpkin chili that I would like to try and a risotto menu. I asked about the porcini – they are mushrooms with a meaty flavor. My soup was a puree and it came with some multigrain bread that I decided to save for Bobby. They also packed in some pumpkin seeds for me to top it with (I got it to go and ate it at home). I believe you can get all of their soups vegan.

The soup was absolutely perfect – I didn’t need to salt or pepper it, and I finished the whole thing. It’s fairly pricey ($7.75 for just a soup – a fairly large portion) but it’s worth it… at least once in a while. I usually spend around that much for lunch anyway so this was a nice change. The pumpkin soup was surprisingly filling. It’s thick and creamy (they use soy milk) and a very homey fall meal. If you are in the area I definitely recommend checking out Bis.Co.Latte. Let me know if you try any of their baked goodies.

Do you like soup? Pumpkin soup? What’s your favorite fall meal?

I usually don’t eat soup because I don’t think it fills me up, but recently I have been trying to add it into my diet more. I love the way it makes my stomach feel (no bloating) and for some reason a hot soup can be super comforting on a chilly fall afternoon. Other recent soup adventures of mine have included carrot soup and veggie soup (both from Le Pain Quotidien) and a Shrimp Bisque (like a chowder) from Hale & Hearty.

*A note on paleo – I have been avoiding grains off and on (mostly avoiding) for the last year but have kept kind of quiet about that because I didn’t want to say something and then suddenly change my mind later. I think I would like to slowly go more paleo (like avoiding sugar better) but I’m totally ok with this being a verrrrry slow process. Paleo can be very meat-heavy and sometimes I have issues (morally) with eating such large amounts of animal flesh. So there you have it.

4 October, 201026 September, 2011

The Non-Hunger Diaries: How I Eat And Move {Part 1 of 2}

***Update #2***

See my response to The Hunger Diaries

***Update***

Interesting timing that I wrote this post today, in light of Marie Clare‘s “The Hunger Diaries“. Maybe I will write my reaction to the article sometime this week. I am retitling this post:

The Non-Hunger Diaries

***

A while ago I got a question from a reader about what my daily exercise and food routines look like. My initial response has changed somewhat since I replied via email (about 3 months ago) so I thought I might post it here because it’s a question I get a lot! I was going to post both workouts and food in the same post but it got long, so today is just going to be my food. I’ve been chatting about the gym a lot lately anyway so it’s time for a change.

This is me (sorry for the awful lighting and the weird angle – it was last night, I only have 1 full length mirror in the house, and my overhead light went out and I haven’t gotten around to putting a new one in). Note the book problem in the background – I have 2 more of those shelves completely full and we are running out of room. (Katie, I still have to mail your book!) I guess this is what happens when you don’t like or watch TV.

You can kind of see my new hair cut. I am wearing my standard uniform of yoga pants and a tank top. It was good to hear that you guys agree with me – you should do what YOU want to with your hair (and everything else) – not what other people tell you. I like having my hair short because I flip my head over, blow dry for 3 minutes, and I’m done. I don’t even need a brush or any products. I have a very simple beauty routine. The only makeup I wear is concealer mixed with oil-free lotion. I rarely wear anything else like mascara or blush. I do always wear jewelry outside of the house – earrings and my wedding and engagement rings. I can be ready in 8 minutes, including my shower. I am not a girly girl and yes I do wear yoga pants to parties. At least I wear cute shoes.

A Chillax Diet Routine

My diet philosophy is: be very chill. I don’t want to be vague though, so I will give examples (not exhaustive, but these are my staples). Something to note – unlike most bloggers, I eat out a lot. I eat out for about 80% of my meals.

Morning before work: a big cup of tea or coffee, sometimes with milk, always with NuNaturals stevia.
Breakfasts: Greek yogurt, or some fruit, or bacon, or hard boiled eggs. If I’m feeling frisky I might have part of a healthy scone from Whole Foods or a buttered bagel. An omelette with greens (whole eggs, not the whites). On weekends we tend to have larger breakfasts and my favorites are actually just huge salads, or big omelettes. This is a far cry from what I used to eat – back at Cornell we’d go to Mate Factor in downtown Ithaca and I would get this great Belgian waffle with whipped cream (sometimes for dinner too). Bobby would get the salmon bagel.

Lunches: a big salad with lots of toppings (my favorite is a chopped unlimited topping salad from cafe metro: romaine, marinated tofu or tuna, grapes, mandarin oranges, tomatoes, cucumbers, whole egg, avocado, sprouts, beets, peppers, and more); leftover dinner. I often have an apple after lunch to clear my palette.

Dinners: whatever I’m missing out on and craving from the day (luckily for me my body tends to know what it needs). This could be another big salad or a big veggie stir-fry with some kind of protein and lots of fats (butter, coconut oil, peanut oil, olive oil, avocado). If I’m in a macro mood I might have a macro plate – brown rice, beans, hijiki seaweed, steamed greens, and steamed squash, doused in whatever dressing the plate comes with (it varies by the restaurant). I recreated my favorite dressing, the miso-tahini sauce recipe from Souen.

Healthy Snacks: fruit, veggies and dip, yogurt, cottage cheese, nuts, etc… I used to have a bad habit of mindlessly snacking too much after dinner but I’ve been working on it and I’m doing much better these days.

I have tried to track my calories and it just makes me crazy. I would guess that I eat anywhere from 1800-2000 calories a day, and it definitely varies all the time depending on time of month and my exercise levels. (I am 5’10” so I am not a teeny girl.) I have never ever had a day where I knew how many calories I ate. (I have nothing against calorie counting if it works for you – it just is not right for me, at all.) The fact that I eat out so much also makes it hard to calculate.

Just some notes – I am NOT vegetarian/vegan/macrobiotic/raw. If anything I’m paleo/primal. I eat meat because I feel that my body needs it. I love butter and cream cheese and Greek yogurt, but don’t eat much dairy besides those (I’m semi lactose intolerant but sometimes I do cave for McDonald’s $1 soft serve). I love fish. I don’t have any known food allergies, but I do have IBS. I love carbs but to be honest I don’t eat many grains these days. I don’t really worry about getting enough protein. I do make sure to eat a lot of fat, which is good for your brain and your skin. I don’t care for nut butter (gasp). My favorite foods are changing all the time, but I generally love squash, seaweed, bacon, and butter.

Hope this answers any questions! Do you eat like me? Have you found a way of eating that works for your body? Anything else you want to ask me? (If you have exercise Q’s I will try to answer them in Part 2.)

My gosh this turned into an epic post. I promise the exercise one is much shorter.

Tag: paleo