Paleo fuel for running

In October of 2013 I ran my first half marathon.  I’ve only been running for a few years and running 13.1 miles was something I ever in my life imagined I would do.  In training for that half marathon I learned a lot about fueling my body for athletic performance.  You can’t just toss back some White Castles and Pinot Noir and expect to have a great run the next day.

Prior to the race, its important to “carb up”, aka, eat carbs to provide energy for your run.  Pre-paleo that meant brown rice, pasta and pizza. Not all at the same time of course.  But none of that will work for a Cavegirl. 

Cavegirl’s favorite pre-race fuel is now sweet potatoes!  Again, not something I ever in my life I imagined I would eat for “fuel” but they are one of the best carb choices on the paleo diet.  I love sweet potato fries and  sweet potato “mash” - shredded sweet potatoes baked with ham or chopped up bacon.  Delicious!

Equally important to training is the post-workout recovery fuel.  The experts will tell you that the quality of your recovery fuel directly affects your next performance.  Pre-paleo my post-run fuel of choice was chocolate milk.  Yum!  Nothing like a cold chocolaty milk after a long hot run.   Just writing that makes me want some chocolate milk RIGHT NOW.   But NO!  Paleo is dairy free – No chocolate milk for you Cavegirl!

I found this recipe for recovery fuel in a book called Paleo Diet for Athletes by Rockridge Press.  Honestly, I’ve not tried it yet (I’m not in training at this time) but I think it sounds pretty tasty and it seems to provide a good balance of carbs and protein.

Tropical Post-Workout Paleo Potion (Paleo Diet for Athletes – Rockridge Press)

• 1 cup fresh pineapple juice

• 1/2 cup fresh strawberries

• 1/2 banana

• 1/2 cup frozen or 2 cups fresh spinach

• 2 pinches unprocessed sea salt

• 2 scoops egg-white protein powder

Combine all ingredients in your blender and blend

Let me know if you like it!

Do you like running?  What do you eat before/after you exercise?

Cavegirl “pasta”

This paleo lifestyle has introduced me to several new kitchen tools including a little gem called The Spiralizer.  Its such a wonder that there is a blog dedicated to it.  The Spiralizer can cut most any veggie into a noodle shape thus simulating a pasta like food for Paleoites. And its fun to use too.

 

No, butternut squash noodles do not taste "just like pasta." But they are very good!  So good in fact, that I make them almost weekly.  But they are not supposed to turn out like this.  #paleofail

Luckily I had another butternut squash so I spiralized it up real quick and threw it in the oven hoping to catch up to the cooking time of the bacon-wrapped filets .

 

So my squash noodles look delicious but this batch turned out the complete opposite of the other batch, barely cooked at all.  So they are placed on the table for the photo op only.  I can’t pay these people enough to eat raw butternut squash noodles. Yes, I tried.

 

At least one member of the family is tired of modeling for my blog.

Do you like squash? What type veggie do you want to spiralize? 

 

 

Sickness Takes Down the Cavegirl!

Coughing, sneezing, sinus pain, aches…yep its that season!  It hit me hard in the middle of Valentine’s Day week.  Since starting to learn about the Paleo diet I’ve been hearing about the benefits of bone broth which is just what it says…a broth made out of bones.  Chicken bones, beef bones, pork bones…there is some good nourishment in them bones!  Hubby thought I was delirious from my weakened state when I decided to make my own bone broth/chicken soup from scratch, especially because he knows with have a pantry full of CampBells and Progressive.

I like to roast a chicken every other week and so I’ve been saving the bones to give this a try.  Here is a video that explains how to make the broth:

It was very low effort; throw it all in the pot and let it simmer for a few hours. Then strain it-yes, takes out all the bones and you just have the stock.

I used this recipe to make the soup.  I picked it because of the billions of chicken soup recipes online I actually had all the ingredients for this one!

http://onceamonthmeals.com/keep-well-chicken-soup/

The soup came out great!  No pics of the family enjoying it this week because I took my bowl of soup back to my bed.

Does chicken soup really help you to feel better when you are sick?  Have you ever cooked bones?

Pizza Paleo Style!

 

In my first blog post, I professed my dying love of pizza and feared I would ever survive a Paleo diet sans the bready cheesy goodness of pizza.  Well, there is a paleo version of pizza…

 

Not bad looking, huh? 

I found the recipe here:

http://bit.ly/1o7pY0p

Here goes…

 

 

Yes that’s cauliflower and goat cheese…the main ingredients of this paleo pizza crust!

First you’ve got to “rice” the cauliflower in the food processor.  It should look like this when you are done.

 

Then combine it and form it into something that resembles a crust and bake for  at 400 degrees.

Once the crust is baked add your toppings.  I used goat cheese, cherry tomatoes and basil to make a margarita like pizza.  Now, bake it again for another 10 minutes or so.

I was thrilled with the finished product. The crust had a really good flavor similar to a real pizza crust and it held together so that I was able to pick it up like real pizza.  Bella did not share my enthusiasm; but she added that it was the goat cheese on top she didn’t like.

 

  What are your favorite pizza toppings? Have you ever tried cauliflower pizza?

Dinner for the Cave Family

Our Paleo Dinner for tonight consists of highly rated Chili Cilantro Lime Chicken recipe found here:

http://paleopot.com/2013/01/chili-cilantro-lime-chicken/

It’s one of Paleo Pot’s top recipes of 2013 with more than 100 raving reviews its got to be good.  Plus, it cooks itself in the crock pot while I go do other (more interesting) things for six hours.

As I finish whipping up the Cliantro Lime sauce in the blender I notice a line in the directions that I must have missed the first time I read it.  #7.Let your chicken marinade overnight. WHHAAT? How did I miss that?  Well with no back-up plan for dinner I decide to go ahead and throw it all in the crockpot as planned.

Six hours later…

 

I'm serving it with a side of cauli-rice, a popular Paleo substitute for rice made out of cauliflower.

While my husband raved over the “falling off the bone, spicy goodness” my son had a different opinion.

 

He said that its not the "paleoness" of the meal that he didn't like; the chicken is just too spicy and the rice is weird. 

Do you like spicy food?  Have you ever tried Cauli-rice?

Would you ever try Calui-rice? Is Paleoness a word?

Breakfast for a Cavegirl

 

I am a breakfast eater and I always have been.  If I don’t have breakfast within about two hours of waking up I feel terrible so that is good motivation to make time for breakfast.  My pre Paleo breakfast of choice was bagel, with lox and cream cheese. I also loved biscuits and gravy and the spinach/gruyere cheese crepe from Pancake Factory.  Yum! None of that goodness is welcome on the Paleo plan.

I’ve found an easy and delicious Paleo breakfast, avocado eggs.  Only a few simple ingredients:

Preheat the oven to 350. Cut open the avocado, remove the pit and scoop out some of the insides to make room for the egg.

I prop up the avocados in my baking dish with foil, otherwise they will tip over as soon as the egg is added – trust me on this.  Crack the eggs and pour them into the avocado halves.  Sprinkle with sea salt and bake for 20 – 25 minutes.

 “That’s looks awesome, make me some!”  Whhhaaat? Am I hearing things?  Having delusions?  Did my husband actually want my Paleo breakfast?  Why yes… wonder of all wonders has occurred.

One of us is just not ready to fully embrace a Paleo breakfast.

Are you a breakfast person?  What’s your favorite breakfast? 

Time to Go Cavegirl!

Welcome to my blog about learning to eat a Paleo diet!  My (new) doctor recommended the Paleo diet  to better manage an autoimmune disease (thyroid) I've been struggling with for a few years.  He gave me very simple instructions:

No grains             No dairy               No legumes        No processed food        

That means no pizza, no bread, no bagels and cream cheese, no bean and cheese burritos, no lasagna…Whaaaat? 

Here is what I can eat:

Protein                 Lots of veggies

I’m ok with that. 

There is good reason to make this change, not only immediate relief to my health symptoms but improved overall health and potential weight loss!  Here is a good video that explains the Paleo diet and benefits.

 

 

Its really a stretch to think I can never have my favorite pizza from Alibi Restaurant, or my other favorite pizza from Tivoli’s Brick Oven or my favorite home delivered pizza from Sorrento’s…ever. I.Love.Pizza 

And so does my family: My husband, an Italian American who loves good Italian food, all food for that matter.  My teenage son, who can clean out the refrigerator quicker than I can say, “I just went grocery shopping”; my lovely daughter, a competitive dancer who knows exactly what she does not like to eat or at least she thinks she knows!

I think the biggest challenges will be all the extra cooking (I’m not a fan) and getting my family on board.

 

Have you ever gone on a diet? Have you ever tried to change your family’s diet?