Living Clean: We're Back baby!! Whoo Whoo!

Hubs and I fell off the clean eating train hard around September of last year. Sure we were eating well during the weeks...at dinner...but the rest of the time it was madness. Or, like we used to eat. We are once again starting to eat Paleo as of yesterday - no carbs, no sugar, no dairy, no gluten, etc...only things that came out of the earth or had a mother at some point. Moooooo.

The fridge has been stocked with grass fed cuts of meat and tons of veggies (peeled and cut and ready to grab) and all the crap has been thrown away (or eaten before we left on vacation last week).

Game on!

One of the things that I struggled with our last go around at clean eating was what to drink. I know that is silly - drink water! - but that gets so damn boring. Last year I gave up soda (and still have to this day) and I developed some serious digestive issues when I drank carbonated drinks, so I was drinking a lot of homemade iced tea. But yesterday at Costco I came across the most wonderful thing!

They are now selling this package of 4 glass pitchers that come with an infuser tube inside of them. So you stick whatever fruit, herb, etc. you want in the infuser tube and the water takes on that flavor. See my creation yesterday of mint, limes and oranges at the right.

Ok, so this isn't anything new, and you are all probably rolling your eyes at how excited I am about this, but I am really excited!! It is so nice to have a drink alternative that is ready to go in the fridge.

Also at Costco (at least at our Costco in Dedham, MA) they now have a dedicated organic food section. There you can find all sorts of wonderful organic products - like a vat of Coconut Oil (you'd be surprised how fast you can go through one when eating Paleo). We also bought some KIND bars for a special treat every now and then. Check out your Costco to see what organic products they are offering - they are really catching up with the rest of the world!

So now that we are back to being Cavemen, stay tuned for all sorts of new recipes and annoying posts about eating clean from yours truly.

Anyone else deciding to "eat clean" this year?

Living Clean: Remastered Curry Chicken Salad

My mom is known for her chicken salad. Whenever friends would come over in high school they would ask for her chocolate chip cookies (that were just Nestle Tollhouse but for some reason were the best cookies ever) and her chicken salad. It is a pretty simple recipe, that I have made hundreds of times, and passed on to many a friend over the years: chicken, apples, raisins, walnuts, grapes, mayo, curry powder and salt and pepper.

The thing that makes it so delicious is the curry mayo, which is simply Hellman's Mayonnaise and curry powder. I could eat Hellman's mayo by the spoonful, and I have. I know some of you just threw up in your mouth, and the others are nodding in agreement at having eaten mayo like ice cream before (ok, not by the bowlful or anything - just a spoonful!).

When we started eating Paleo it was hard for me to give up the Hellmans - nothing you make at home compares. But I became accustom to my homemade mayo after I found the right mix of ingredients - one egg yolk, dash of salt, juice from half a lemon, a tablespoon of water (because I use one of those handheld immersion blenders) and one cup of walnut oil. I have tried using macadamia nut oil (most expensive and least flavorful), avocado oil (gave the mayo a green hue and tasted too much like avocados), almond (too nutty) and hazelnut oil (reminded me too much of coffee flavoring).

Now onto my remastered Curry Chicken Salad!

For the chicken I will either cook an entire free-range bird in the crockpot (sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook on low for 5 hours) or I will get the plain or brined rotisserie chickens from Whole Foods if I am lazy (which is most of the time). I decided to swap out walnuts for healthier almond slivers, and I added diced scallions for a delicious oniony crunch. And instead of raisins I used unsweetened dried cherries.

Let me just say, wow. This turned out even better than I had expected! I have also eaten it for breakfast and lunch the last two days it is so good. The scallions really add a new depth of flavor to an already simple but delicious salad (did that sound like a line out of Top Chef?)

Here is the crazy simple recipe (including the recipe for my mayo) for you to try yourself!:

Living Clean: Slow-Cooker Goodness

Just last week I was lubing up the girls and putting them in bathing suits so we could play in our various blow up pools on the back deck. Today I turned the heat on. And I love it! I am a sucker for all things fall: foliage, pumpkin anything, apple picking, wearing jeans, boots and coats and especially the start of the holidays. This cold front we are having in New England is making me excited for all of those things to come in the upcoming months, and has prompted me to dust off the slow cooker and try out some new recipes.

I recently discovered stupideasypaleo.com thanks to a guest post over at nomnompaleo.com, my go-to for Paleo recipes. I decided to try out her Kickin' BBQ Chicken recipe on Monday and loved it so much that I plugged my slow cooker back in and tried another one of her recipes! And damn! they did not disappoint.

And let me just say this...I will never ever buy another rotisserie chicken again. I cooked a whole chicken, as stupideasypaleo.com suggests, in the slow cooker and it was simply delicious. All you need to do is clean the bird, pat it dry, place in the slow cooker, cover with salt and pepper, put the lid on and cook it for 5 hours on low. Moist, tasty, tender bird. MMMMMM.

I have a few other Paleo/Clean slow cooker recipes that are really simple and fantastic so I figured I would share the links to all of them in this post! Click on the photo captions to go to the original recipe posts. All of the photos below are from the original posters websites.

Civilized Caveman's Crockpot Simple Short Ribs

Stupid Easy Paleo's Kickin' BBQ Chicken

Stupid Easy Paleo's Mocha-Rubbed Pot Roast

Nomnom Paleo's Slow Cooker Roast Chicken and Gravy

Nomnom Paleo's Slow Cooker Thai Yellow Curry With Grass Fed Beef

Living Clean: Salted Honey and Fig "Cheesecake"

This week I decided to give a new dessert recipe a try. I am truly a sucker for visually beautiful things: I buy wine based on the labels (not always the smartest method), I am constantly interrupting my daily life and taking photos of things I see that I found appealing (whether it is a broken sign or shoes displayed on a wall) and I am not afraid to tell someone to their face if I think they have the greatest skin (hair, smile or even face) I have ever seen. So when I came across the photo below on Pinterest, that also linked me to a Paleo-friendly cheesecake recipe, I knew I had to try this out.

How pretty is that photo? Of course, it helps that the bloggers at ahouseinthehills.com are also photographers (and beautiful people themselves- not that that helps, just a coincidence). And then I happen to walk into Whole Foods on Monday and they had figs displayed right in the front I knew this was going to be my next experiment. 

Where to start...

I knew that something that was labeled as dairy-free was obviously not going to have cheese in it, so how could it be called a cheesecake? I will say this, it resembles a cheesecake in physical appearance only. My end result did not taste anything like a cheesecake (which is obvious after you read the ingredients) but it was a tasty dessert nonetheless! 

I won't go into the step by step process, which you can find by clicking here, but I will say that it was a fairly simple recipe to make. You will use your food processor, your blender (or Vitamix if you have one - I do not) and a 9 inch spring form pan (this I did not use so I wasn't able to get a good all around photo like above. Other than that you don't get much else dirty. 

My end results (via busted iPhone)

So the recipe itself...it consists of a lot of nuts. There are walnuts and pecans in the crust (along with dates, almond flour and spices). Let me talk about the crust for a second because it is absolutely delicious. I had a little extra and stood there and ate it with a spoon. It tastes like the crumb topping on an apple crisp - and that is exactly what I am going to use it for the upcoming weeks! The "cheesecake" part of the recipe is made with soaked cashews (you need to do this overnight to make them soft so plan accordingly), almond milk, vanilla and a few other things. 

I will be honest. When I first tasted the cake "batter" (I use that term very loosely) I was not impressed, but I pressed on and layered it on top of the crust and waited my two hours for it to freeze in the freezer.  I then added the figs, honey and salt to the top and dove in for a bite...

...and it wasn't bad! Actually, it was pretty delicious! I am a sucker for anything that is sweet and salty and this had the right balance of that for sure. If I was hosting a dinner party I would definitely make this again for my adventurous friends. 

My slice of dessert goodness

Here are my only issues: 

- As I previously mentioned, I do not have a Vitamix (which is what the creator of the recipe recommends for good reason), so my cake was still a little crunchy as I couldn't get the nuts full pulverized no matter what I did. I would recommend using Vitamix if you can, or even manually tampering the mixture to get it even more smooth. 

- I checked on my cake in the fridge today and in the spot where I took a slice there was a lot of liquid. I don't know if this is because it was frozen for a bit yesterday and sat in the fridge overnight, or if because the cake is just settling, but it doesn't look to pleasant today. That is not to say that I won't be trying it, and enjoying it again today! This might be due to some error on my part as well. 

So in summary I totally recommend my more adventurous/foodie readers to give this one a try. It is certainly like nothing you have tasted before, and is a nice sweet treat to end your day with. 

Recipe of the Week: Nomnompaleo Asian Chicken Thighs

I actually got my act together this week and made something for dinner other than a grilled piece of meat and some veg (which is what we are having tonight for dinner, but whatever). I decided to go to my favorite source for all things paleo, Nonompaleo.com. One of my readers told me to try out the Asian Chicken Thighs, so that is exactly what I did.

I will be honest - I am a chicken breast kind of girl. I don't mine picking apart a rotisserie chicken, but I am not partial to eating chicken meat off the bone. Now ribs, I can handle, but there is something about little tiny chicken bones in my mouth which kind of gives me the willies. But I have never been disappointed by a Nomnompaleo recipe, so I figured I would put my feelings about tiny bones in my mouth (insert male member joke here :) aside and start cooking.

I won't do a step by step on here, as Michelle of Nomnompaleo has ridiculous detailed (and beautifully photographed) step by step instructions on her website, so click here for the full recipe. 

I will say that if you don't eat a paleo diet, you will find that you have to but a lot of ingredients that you don't normally have in your pantry (toasted sesame oil, fish sauce, rice wine vinegar, to name a few). Basically all you do is combine the ingredients in a food processer and pulse until they become a marinade. Put the chicken in a plastic bag, pour in the marinade, let it sit in the fridge for a few hours, and then cook. Very very simple.

And very very tasty.

Here are my only comments:
- I used only 3 pounds of thighs, and still felt like I didn't have enough marinade. Maybe when I marinate things I use more liquid than I need to though.
- I cooked the chicken for 40 minutes at 400 degrees and still didn't have that crispy skin like Michelle says you get in the recipe. I left it in there for 3 more minutes and a few got a little crispy, but I was looking for that fabulous crispy chicken skin you get on whole chickens. It is probably something to do with my oven though, which is fairly old and cooks thing pretty unevenly.
- The thighs are not as good the next day. As Michelle says in the recipe "eat immediately."
- There is definitely enough for 4-6 people in this recipe so if you are making it for only 2, I would half the amount of chicken, but use the same amount of marinade. As I said, the leftovers were good, but not great.

Overall I recommend giving this a try. I think it would be am amazing dish for a party, as they are really easy to eat with your hands (and not as messy as Michelle leads you to believe in the recipe).

Living Clean: The Dirty Month of July

For the first 6 months of this year my husband and I pretty much ate a 90% Paleo diet. We were sugar-, complex carb-, gluten- and dairy-free most of the week. We did cheat here and there, especially when we went out to dinner, but for the most part we were living a pretty strict Paleo lifestyle.

The results were amazing - I lost 25 pounds and two dress sizes. My husband is the thinnest he has been in 15 years (I don't even want to know how much he has lost because I will be totally jealous - damn men and their easy weight loss). We felt great: more energy, better sleep and neither of us got sick during those six months. Then July came...

...and we fell off the wagon - hard. Half of July we spent away from our house - our safe haven, where we always have a stocked fridge and pantry full of clean cooking condiments. We started off our vacations trying to be good (packing trail mix and other healthy snacks) but then we quickly found ourselves indulging in potato chips and Helluva Good dip (and it lives up to it's name friends). We were basically on an all-carb, all-sugar and all-processed food diet.

And I went from exercising 4 times a week to once or twice if I was lucky when I was at home and basically not at all while on vacation. The fact that I was recuperating from sinus surgery at the beginning of the month didn't help the situation either.

After a month of eating like we used to and lying around like slugs we felt like shit - fat, greasy, lazy, soft, jiggly shit. I can't believe that before January this was the way I used to eat! Whatever, whenever. Never reading labels, never caring about what I put in my mouth, and eating until I felt sick. No wonder I have always battled with my weight. You eat crap, you feel like crap, you look like crap. Simple enough.

So as of this week we are once again back on the wagon. The fridge is stocked with grass-fed meats and organic fruit and veg, and we are back to making (90%) of our meals ourselves. This week we have put the grill to work overtime -

- Veal chops with a dry rub of Chipotle pepper, minced garlic and dry mustard (with grilled zucchini)
- Shrimp with Old Bay seasoning (with tomato and onions sauteed in ghee)
- Grass-fed burgers with dry mustard, minced onion, dijon mustard, salt, pepper with grilled onions and baked sweet potato fries

And tonight is steak tips (pre-marinaded and purchased from Whole Foods - not paleo, but this is where we aren't being as strict as before) and grilled eggplant that I received from the Boston Organics delivery this week. I will let you know how that goes, as they are the skinny bright purple eggplants, and I am a little scared of them!!

My goal is to try a new recipe from Pinterest each week, and then report back to you all with my comments and photos of the results. So stay tuned for more updates and recipe info in the very near future!!