Back at it

After a wonderful family leave I'm looking to start getting refocused on both my diet and my workouts.  I haven't been off the rails on the diet side, but definitely going to the dark chocolate well a little more often than just the occasional treat, more like daily.  I also want to work on my stress eating and it's close cousin procrastination eating.  On the workout side, it's been sporadic at best and a little less of a 'plan' than I'd like to admit.  I did my Paleo Challenge baseline test this morning and got 18 deadhang pullups and 11 handstand pushups.  I'm looking to get those up to 21/15.  My second goal in the gym for the Challenge is to get a body weight snatch.  My snatch when we tested a few weeks ago was 167 with a body weight of 176.  So my goals for just over 3 weeks from today are:

Pull ups - 21
HSPU - 15
Snatch - Body Weight (probably ~170) 

My plan to get there on the diet side is
Cut out all dark chocolate
Cut out all cheese, I've been doing goat's milk and just want to see what happens if I take it out.
Be aware of my stress eating/procrastination eating, don't unless actually hungry
Since based on the above plan I'm removing some items, I need to make sure I'm eating enough

I'm assuming just doing this will get me back under 170 with very limited strength loss

I also tested out my Olympic Total to set a baseline since I'm going to try and get more consistent in the gym.  Results were in line with my expectations and well off any prs, but they are what they are, the weights don't lie.
Squat - 280
Press -145
Dead - 335

My gym plan is:
1 crossfit class per week
3 times to the box per week.
Specific pullup / hspu work 2 times per week
Specific snatch work once per week

So far today, it's been really clean.  I did some black tea and some fast twitch for pre-workout, no breakfast.  Then did about a 1/2 lb burger for lunch with some wilted arugula and then about two hours later did a 1/4 lb burger and a mixed green salad.  Working through the CSA box already.

I'm going to start posting more info for my Paleo Challenge Teams.  I'm looking forward to them sweeping the podium in 3 weeks!  Feel free to post questions here or email as you've been doing.  

A New Beast Loaf

Jess isn't quite the offal fan that I am, so my goal has been finding a 2nd liver dish other than pate that she'd enjoy.  On Friday I noticed a recipe on Mark's Daily Apple that sounded like it might fit the bill.  http://www.marksdailyapple.com/pork-beef-and-liver-terrine/

I was informed by Jess I couldn't call what I made a terrine since I omitted the nuts, but it came out great and she even agreed!  I used ground pork, ground beef, and beef liver, wrapped in bacon all from Meadow Haven Farms.  I used bourbon instead of brandy and we didn't have any allspice in the house.  I'll probably go a little more adventurous on the flavoring next time.  I followed the directions themselves pretty closely and it was pretty labor intensive, but in the end worth it.  We enjoyed a piece tonight sprinkled with some fresh parsley and a little Dijon mustard. 

For those that aren't big fans of the taste of beef liver,  but are trying to find ways to mix it in due to being such a nutrient powerhouse, this might be a good option.  It's not overly liver-y, has bourbon in it, and is wrapped in bacon! 

Cucumber

These were one of our swap items for the green beans in this week's basket.  I love cucumbers, typically just eating raw.  We also really the fresh taste they can give water and a nice alternative to lemon.

Red Potatoes

Typically a Paleo no-no.  For a change up though, they're a nice treat and if you skin these guys and cook them you've removed the majority of the anit-nutrients.  They're not overly high in nutrients on a per calorie basis, but a nice vehicle for many flavors.  We did kohlrabi and potato cakes last night, modified slightly from the the recipe Jesse sent and they came out really well.

Slow Cooking

Having a half hog and side of beef in our freezer results in a lot of roasts and other cuts of meat that require some time to make them tender and tasty.  From time to time on the weekends we'll play around with smoking items on our grill, but during the week we don't have time to babysit dinner for 4+ hours.  Our crock pot however gives us the opportunity to start something in the morning, head to work and have a meal ready when we get home.  It's probably one of our favorite and most indispensable kitchen appliances  This is a picture of our heavily used crock pot.  The knob on the top is a replacement knob made for pots.  The lid used to have a couple other parts that have since broke off, but the appliance itself still works well.  We use it about one to two times a week in the fall / winter and closer to once a week during the warmer months.  I'd say the absolute best feature of this crock pot is being able to program the time to the half hour and then flips to "warm" after the time has expired.  There are many slow cooker options that say they're programmable, but the only options are 4 or 6 hours on hi or 8 or 10 hours on low, being able to zero in a little bit better than this is invaluable.  It's perfect for making large amounts of food and having plenty of leftovers to enjoy the rest of the week or throw in the freezer for later. 

Recipes that we use our slow cooker for are all very easy, since our purpose is convenience.  For roasts we typically put the roast up on a bed of onions or sweet potatoes or something else that would support the roast.  Stews, soups, stocks are even easier, since we just toss everything in together and give it a stir.  Here are a couple of our favorite recipes:

Pulled Pork/Beef 
-3 lbs pork or beef roast
-1 medium onion - small dice
-1 bell pepper - small dice
-2 to 3 stalks of celery - small dice
-1 Tb pickling spice tied in cheesecloth or a tea ball
-1 tsp dry mustard
-1 tsp salt
-1 cup water
-4 oz tomato paste

Add all ingredients to slow cooker.  If you're putting the roast in frozen, set the timer for 8 hours on low, if thawed, 6 hours on low should be fine.  Once you get home and the time has expired leave the pot on warm and take the lid off, let the roast cool a bit and shred the roast either by hand or with two forks.  It's going to be very hot, so by hands is usually not my favorite option.  There should be plenty of juice in the crock, once shredded mix the meat into all of that juice and let everything sit together on warm for 20-30 minutes.

We vary the spices on this for whatever we're feeling like.  Sometimes a little more Mexican, sometimes Thai, or just barbeque.

Barbeque Short Ribs
-1.5 lbs of short ribs
-Favorite barbeque or steak rub, we found an awesome coffee barbeque rub that works well
-1 large sweet potato / 2-3 small, skinned cut into even sized chunks, inch or so high
-1/4 cup of water

Pour the water into the crock.  Place the sweet potatoes on the bottom of the crock, use these as the bed that you will set your short ribs on.  Give the short ribs a good rub down with the spice rub and place on top of the sweet potato.  Set the crock pot for about 6 hours if frozen and 4 hours if thawed.  Once complete pull the short ribs out, the top will have a bit of a crust formed, the rest should be tender and moist.  Pull the potatoes out, they're going to be plenty soft, and we typically just mash them with a little butter, salt, cinnamon, and cayenne pepper and have them as a side.  Jess like a sauce on most of her's so she will use some sort of bbq sauce, I usually just put a couple spoon fulls of the broth at the bottom of the pan on mine.

Chicken Stock 
- Carcass from chicken including neck, and any other unused innards
- 3-4 stalks celery
- 1 large onion
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 carrot
- Sage
- 2 Tbs vinegar
- Parsley / Oregano

Add all ingredients to crock, except parsley and oregano if using fresh.  Cover completely with water, but make sure you leave yourself an inch or so at that top of the crock. Set cooker on low for 12-14 hours. Throw the fresh Parsley and Oregano in during the last 2 hours.  Once complete let cool and strain the stock into mason jars.  Let cool completely before putting in freezer/fridge, otherwise too drastic a temperature change can cause the glass to break, fridge not as big a deal.  The fat will rise to the top once in the fridge/freezer, this can be removed.  You'll notice homemade stock has a jello-y giggle to it, trust me, it's good for you and it all liquifies once heated.  I don't salt until I actually use it in a dish.  The vinegar gives it a little zip in the background that I really like, but it's obviously option and not necessary.

Chilli
- 2 lbs ground beef
- 1 onion - chopped
- 3 cloves garlic - chopped
- 1 jalapeno pepper (or other favorite hot pepper) - chopped
- 1 bell pepper  - chopped
- 24 oz  salsa - we like Trader Joe's red salsa
- 36 oz  diced tomatoes, retain juice as well
- Chilli powder and cumin to taste
- Hot sauce to taste

Mix all ingredients together.  If you brown the beef beforehand, you can cook for as little as a couple hours, just to get the flavors to come together.  If you're not browning the beef then plan on 6-8 hours.  We'll swap in a half pound of hot Italian sausage sometimes as well for a little different taste, much more than that we've found too overpowering.  We also toss in some fresh parsley and oregano.

How do you use your slow cooker?

Beets

Beets are back on the menu for week 5.  This is a vegetable that all I knew until about a year ago was the canned variety and I knew I didn't like those.  Jess talked me into trying some from Green City Market last summer and it was like a whole different vegetable.  We've been playing with a pretty simple appetizer we got at the Purple Pig that was simply roasted cubed beets, a little sea salt, chopped pistachios, and goat cheese.  Very tasty!

SOO WEE!!

We picked up our second 1/2 hog from Meadow Haven Farms on Saturday morning.  The first one was amazing and lasted us about 9 months.  To the right is a picture of our half.  I'd estimate about 100 lbs of take home meat.  It's great from the standpoint that you get to chose how your hog is cut up and prepared.  We really enjoy getting our meat this way, it let's us try cuts (and offal)  that aren't as easy to find in the grocery store and the quality really is top not from MHF.  In a half, you can expect plenty of pork chops and bacon, some shoulder steaks, about 10 lbs of ground or sausages, ham, and roasts.

We have also been splitting half cows (MHF as well) with friends, so the two compliment each other nicely and the only protein we end up getting from the grocery store is fish. Grass fed beef is great, when cooking you can tell it's less watery and has more of a beefy taste to it than conventional, but the difference is even greater between grocery store pork and what you get from MHF's pastured organic pork.  The pastured pork is much more tender with a texture that stays firm yet juicy and has some real flavor to it.  Other than needing to cook it at a lower temp, I find it far more forgiving than conventional as well.  We did the pork chops this evening.  I did mine marinated in a tablespoon of lime juice, tablespoon of rum and a good rub of jerk seasoning.  Super tender, loved it, should be another great pig.