Cookies! And no, not Oreos!

Who said there is no baking in Paleo?

Well, it wasn’t me!!

If I haven’t already raved about the new Paleo magazine, then let me rave right here. It’s amazing. The photos are beautiful and brilliant and the articles are so inspiring and very key to real world Paleo-ism. It comes out 6 times a year and is very well worth taking a look at. And being friends with them on Facebook as I found these two recipes on their Facebook page. It was kinda a teaser to their next issue coming out (as I salivate, waiting by the mailbox).

The only slight problem I have with going Paleo was the fact that I married the Cookie Monster. Wanna hear a funny story? Of course you do! When The Soldier/Cookie Monster and I got married almost 9 year ago, we rarely fought. 

 Even with the transition to military life and being married, we never fought. Until I decided that I was going to be Miss Suzy Homemaker and cooked a lot. So one day, while The Soldier was doing Soldier stuff, I baked a ton of cookies. From scratch, not a tube. Well, he came home and I left (one car at that time, still don’t know how we ever did THAT for 7 years) to go workout and when I returned, drooling at the prospect for cookies, I walked into the kitchen to find that The Soldier had eaten all the cookies…but one.

When I asked him about this…his response was and has consistently been, “Well, I left you one.”

So, when I saw these recipes for these Paleo cookies, I thought I’d give em a shot. They were good and The Cookie Monster was full, even leaving me a few (cause if he hasn’t learned the wrath of ME by now? I feel bad for him).

Almond Coconut Orange cookies

Here is what you need!

1 C Almond Flour

¼ C unsweetened coconut flakes

¼ C raw honey

2 TBSP butter (organic, grass-fed!) ((melted))

1 TBSP orange zest (you can use the ‘spice’ or you can do a workout of the day and make your own orange zest. I will say that the fresh zest kicks the ‘spice’ orange zest’s butt….it’s worth it.)

Here is what you do!!!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the almond flour, coconut and orange zest together.

Melt your butter.

Add the butter and the honey and stir!

When the mixture is all mixed, take about a golf ball sized portion and roll it around in your hand.

Place it on the cookie sheet and then press down. I like these to be pretty flat.

Bake for 10 to 11 minutes, or until the outsides of the cookie are brown.

It’s VERY important that you let these suckers cool, for about 10 minutes. If you don’t, the cookie will crumble as will your resolve to make good cookies!

Sunflower raisin cookies.

Here is what you need!!!

½ C sunflower seed flour (I can’t find it anywhere…so I got some unsalted, shelled sunflower seeds, threw em in my food processor and demolished them. It will be chunky and most certainly not like flour you are used to. Be not afraid…that’s what you want!)

1/3 C raisins

¼ C raw honey

2 TBSP of coconut flour.

2 TBPS shredded coconut

2 tsp vanilla

Here is what you do!!!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Mix everything together!!!

Again, make golf ball sized portions.

Don’t flatten these guys out. Leave them as little ant hills.

Bake for about 12 to 13 minutes.

The tops will be slightly brown.

Again, I cannot tell you how important it is that you let these guys cool. If you pick em up a couple of minutes after you pull them out of the oven? You are gonna have a hot mess of what looks like granola. It still tastes good, but defeats the cookie thing!

And….you’re done!!

First Week of Beginners Cross Fit

Bah.

I have been feeling pretty darned good about my workouts this week...basically a beginners cross fit workout. I completed every single task at hand as well as doing some runs in between or after or before...whatever. I still did em.

But I saw the doctor yesterday, nothing huge, just to cement in a doctor to get some labs, check my ankle and talk about my sleeping problems.

And then she weighed me.

Talk about a low freaking blow. I'm not gonna post the actual weight here. You are just going to have to take my weight loss (it WILL happen) journal/posts as my word. But I will tell you this.

I have never been heavier in MY LIFE.

So...while it bite me to the core, it also gave me more enthusiasm to get the heck out to my prison gym and GO. Go, go, go. Today is my day off and all morning I thought, man...I need this. My body is sore!!!!

But I think I would actually benefit from a nice, slow run on the treadmill this afternoon.

Someone slap me silly.

My weight is a hefty number. The Soldier has told me to "lift heavy things," and I won't tell him this but basically? This last week? I have been lifting heavy things...ME.

I need to set some weight and physical goals but I need to know I can get through this last week of the beginner cross fit workout.

Happy lifting everybody!!!

Workout of Death...day 5

Holy Bajeezus...

Yesterday, I decided to take my rest day as far as exercise goes. I tried to cook some recovery foods for The Soldier and I but failed. I also failed at sleeping well last night, taking a little nap this afternoon. So I've had about 24 hours of fail.

But then I went and did my beginners Cross Fit workout that was meant for yesterday. Today was supposed to be my rest day but I switched.

Make sense? No? I understand.

Here is what I did.

400 meters walk at 3.0 incline

800 meters run, increasing speed every 30 seconds for 400 meters and then decreasing speed for the last 400 meters.

400 meters walk at 1.5 incline.

Then I did five rounds of the following:

10 tuck jumps

15 Superman's.

Now my ankle hurts...but I did it. I completed it. I did it.

And now I'm covered in sweat.

Some Good Summer Foods!

I go through these phases of Paleo websites….some weeks I just stay stuck on Everyday Paleo. Then I go to Nom Nom Paleo and find myself going back through her history of posts and laughing so freaking hard. I’ve even started reading Nom Nom Paleo husband’s site, Fitbomb which The Soldier likes as well!! I’ve found some other great websites as well but recently, I have been loving The Clothes Make The Girl. She is an excellent writer with incredibly encouraging posts about eating clean and working out.

And the food on her site? Fantastical. I made her stove top carnitas the other day, coupled with her recipe for a cucumber salad with her Paleo mayo.

Now here is the thing…I made Everyday Paleo mayo and Melissa's mayo…and I’m gonna do a post about it. I also used the carnitas for a fried ‘rice’ recipe from Melissa as well and there will be a post on that later too.  But for now, here are the recipes for the stove top carnitas and a cucumber salad.

Stove Top Carnitas!

Here is what you need!!!

3-4lb pork shoulder

½ C lime juice

½ C lemon juice

1 ½ TBSP of cumin

1 TBSP garlic powder

1teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon coriander

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon cayenne

Here is what you do!!

Cut the pork shoulder into bits. Think bite size? Then triple that.

Mix the spices in a bowl together. (this is my favorite thing to do!!)

Then, get a big ole zip lock back, throw the chunks of pork in there and then toss all the spice in the bag and then get The Soldier away from Angry Birds so that he can mix all the pork and spices together real well. And then get approval from Sous Chef Sully.

Then take a bunch of lemons and limes (or you can get the little rubber bottles of the fresh citrus juice…), slice em and then get The Soldier away from Angry Birds so that he can squeeze ½ a cup of lemon juice and ½ a cup of lime juice. He was not pleased.

Put the spice covered pork in a big ole pot. Then put the citrus all over the pork.

Then add water so that it just covers the pork.

Then make that stuff BOIL. Like…really boil!!

Then, of course, tone down the heat to just a little bit of bubble. Keep it uncovered!

Allow this to go on for about 2 hours. At this point, the water should be either gone or almost gone. And the outside of the meat will kind of crisp up (and later taste delicious).

Carefully, turn the chunks of meat so it gets all crispy everywhere!

This is so good and makes a bunch. I decided to make it into a sammich…big lettuce, tomatoes, avocado…perfect. Then I saved some of the pork for some fried ‘rice’ that Melissa wrote up!

Cucumber Salad!

Here is what you need!!!

2 to 3 big ole cucumbers

1 big white onion

A bunch of fresh parsley

Mel’s mayo (there is a post round these parts on this mayo, which is my favorite)

Salt

Pepper (if you want, I didn’t want)

Garlic powder.

Here is what you do!!!

So, here is the deal. Melissa even said on her page that you kinda just have to feel this recipe out. I don’t have amounts for you. I just don’t. So do what I did…do the big stuff first.

Cut your cucumbers up, sliced pretty thin.

Cut the onion up. I didn’t dice the onion…I left rather large thin pieces.

Then I chopped the heck out of the bunch of parsley.

And put it all in a bowl!

I made my mayo. And then dumped about a cup of it in the mixture and stirred it up.

I sprinkled some salt in the mix and some garlic powder (a lot…we lurve garlic here).

And I stirred.

Taste test your salad. Do you need more onion? Cut ½ of one up then. Need some more mayo? Throw some more in there! It’s up to you. But it is worth it and soooo good.

Carry on, my foods people! These two recipes are fantastic for picnics (that aren’t in 100 degree Georgia heat)!!

!

Random!!!!! Which is my middle name...

Random Stuff

I know everyone reads here basically for foods and workouts (or lack thereof….) but when I was downloading a bunch of pics for some upcoming recipes, I had a couple of random ones in here as well so I thought I would dedicate a post to it!! I know it’s just a silly little look into my pretty uninteresting life…but here it is!!

I asked The Soldier to get me some smoked oysters. I knew that they would prolly be in a can of sorts but it didn’t matter. I can’t stomach sardines and that seems to be a good snack. So I thought I could do the oysters.

They were the most disgusting thing I have ever had in my whole entire lifetime. I’ll spare you the details but as soon as I put one in my mouth? I had to reach for the towel in order for the dogs not to feast on regurgitation.

I cooked an awesome chicken the other night. I put on the oven mitts to pull the pot out of the oven, directly took the mitts off and picked up the top of the pot….without the mitts. BLISTER TIME!!!

This bothers me when the US Women’s Soccer team is beginning their kill on France.

This was my breakfast on 7/11/2011. I burnt the bacon, julienned some sweet taters, made two eggs and has some fruit. It was good!

This is Sully before my Crossfit workout.

This is Sully after my Crossfit workout.

The next three pics are what happens when I empty my re-useable shopping bags after a hundred (ok…or more, sheesh) grocery trip. I like to view my treasures.

And the next three pics are of why I dislike living in the south.

Gross.