Archive for July 29, 2012

Oxymoron Bites, Success

Posted: July 29, 2012 in Food
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I’m going to go ahead and deem Oxymoron Bites day a success. I started this morning by making some Paleo Pancakes. Even though half of them broke apart on me while trying to flip them, they tasted amazing. (You think I could get IHOP to make their pancakes Paleo?). Anyhow, I was a little concerned if they would get me through the day but they did ok. I don’t think I would have been able to workout with just the pancakes for Sahoor, I would have needed to add some more protein and fat to the mix. Nonetheless, a great alternative to the typical egg breakfast I had been having. The only problem was, I didn’t sleep after eating them. I’m not sure if it was the pancakes or that I just missed my window of opportunity to fall back asleep but I was wide awake for good. No bueno.

Then later in the day I decided to make some Paleo muffins. I honestly had no idea how this was going to turn out. The idea of a healthy muffin sounds ludicrous to me but it was worth a shot. Here is what I used to make a batch of 6 muffins:

    • 1 cup almond flour
    • 1 tsp baking soda
    • 1/2 tsp sea salt
    • 1/2 Tbs cinnamon
    • 1/2 cup of pitted dates (in honor of Ramadan)
    • 3/4 cup shredded coconut
    • 1/3 cup grounded up walnut
    • 2 bananas
    • 2 eggs
    • 1/8 cup coconut oil
    • muffin tins

Before you start mixing anything, pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Then, combine the almond flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl. Use a food processor to blend the eggs, dates, bananas, and coconut oil. Combine most mixtures into a large bowl and mix it up. Add in the walnut and coconut shredding and mix it up real good. Pour the mixture using a spoon into the muffin tins. Place them in the oven for 25 minutes at 350 degrees. Pretty simple and straightforward to make if you have all of the ingredients ahead of time. Here is how it looked before the mixture entered the oven and then after they were done:

They don’t rise much so fill the tins up if you want the trust muffin look. The taste reminded me of banana bread but the coconut gave it a new angle. I ate one as a dessert today and plan on eating one for Sahoor tomorrow. It’s a great snack for cravings but I would still avoid eating them too late. The bananas and dates do contain a lot of sugar so it could affect your sleep and digestion.

So with the snacks covered, I decided to make Paleo Chicken Alfredo for dinner. It involved using a type of pasta I hadn’t heard of before, kelp noodles. It can be found at global food stores. Aside from that, the recipes calls for several powders that I didn’t have so I decided to make my own:

    • 1 lb of chicken breast, diced
    • 12 oz. of kelp noodles
    • 2 tsp olive oil
    • 4 cloves of garlic, minced
    • 2 tsp of cilantro
    • 1/2 tsp onion powder
    • 1/4 tsp garlic
    • 1/4 tsp salt
    • 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
    • 1/4 tsp of paprika
    • 1/4 tsp of chili powder
    • 1/2 tomato, diced

Add olive oil to a large skillet over medium heat. Once the oil is warm, drop in the minced garlic and let it saute for a few minutes while stirring it around. Add the chicken to the skillet and mix around until the chicken is done. Add the kelp noodles to boiling water for a few minutes. Drain the water and move the noodles to the skillet and add in the cilantro. Cover it up and let it simmer on low heat for about 30 minutes.

Place the onion powder, garlic powder, sea salt, black pepper, and paprika into a blender and blend. Place some olive oil on a hot pan and add this mixture to it. Stir it around for a few minutes and add in the tomato. Stir it for another minute or so and then place this sauce into the large skillet with the chicken and pasta. Mix it all up and then cover it up. Leave it on to the stove to cook for another 10-15 minutes or until the noodles are tender.

I need some extra spice so I added sriracha sauce to it:

I made enough for the whole family and everyone seemed to love it. They aren’t paleo eaters so they put some alfredo sauce on it but oh well. It tasted good without it and filled me up. Regular pasta leaves me with a tummy ache if I’ve been eating Paleo. This however left no such feeling. Success in my book!

It was a fun day trying these recipes out for things that are generally diet killers for any athlete. However I showed you here that eating healthy doesn’t mean that you have to stick to rabbit food. With a few substitutes and creativity, you can make the same foods your friends do but maintain your washboard abs!

 

Oxymoron Bites

Posted: July 29, 2012 in Food
Tags: , , ,
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Today I’m going to try out what I call oxymoron bites. Oxymoron because they will be things like “Good for you pancakes” (huh?) and “healthy muffins” (seriously?). I want to show that eating healthy doesn’t mean you have to munch on lettuce and dry meat all day. You can still have all the tasty snacks and dishes you normally crave but you just have to find some alternative ingredients. The goal is to have those dishes be healthy but still taste great so you stay motivated doing this. This should be interesting.

Oh but first, I want to talk about my cheat meal night. I knew it was too good to be true. I should have just stuck with what I was doing. The dish I ordered ended up being over a pound of cheese wrapped in bread. Who eats this stuff?? Barf. Needless to say, after eating clean for over a week straight, it’s hard for your stomach to process that or much less even desire it. Sadly, my 2 other Paleo friends who ordered the same thing and myself, took a few bites and left the place hungry. Oh well, lesson learned!

Now back to the present. For Sahoor this morning I made banana almond pancakes:

2 bananas
2 Tbs almond butter
1 egg
2 Tbs coconut shreddings
1 Tbs coconut oil
Blueberries

Put the bananas and almond butter in a bowl and start smashing/mixing. Add in the egg and coconut shredding and stir it up until it’s a fine mixture. Heat up a non-stick pan and put a little bit of coconut oil in it. I recommend keeping the stove on a lower setting because they do cook fast.

My trick for making pancakes is that I put the batter into a measuring cup so I can pour evenly using the spout. Pour the mixture into the pan making a circle no bigger than 3-4″. I say that size because the bigger the size, the harder it is to flip. I have no trick for flipping and you will see my sad attempts at flipping shortly. Once the batter starts cooking, add in the blueberries to one side of the pancake. When the edges start turning golden, it’s time to flip. Once they are flipped, let them cook until the backside gets to the darkness level you prefer and take them off.

Flipping was an epic fail but the taste was amazing. I honestly think they tasted better than regular pancakes and I didn’t even need butter or syrup! Here is how they looked:

image

So there you have it, “healthy pancakes”. Don’t tell me your sweet tooth cravings are what’s keeping you from eating healthy! More to come later today!