When not in prep mode, our preferential way of eating is Paleo, so we have been getting back to that way of prepping and eating food. One of things I love about Paleo is all of the great recipes! This past Sunday was my first day back to prepping a week full-on Paleo. The last two weeks we did Paleo chili and Paleo jambalaya for some of our meals (two of my faves, especially when it starts cooling down). Sunday I prepped an old favorite - good old fashioned BBQ - as well as trying three new recipes - nutty meat loaf, Paleo crispy orange chicken and jalapeno glazed chicken.
The BBQ is so easy, it's ridiculous to pay for it anywhere. I cooked an 8 pound Boston butt in 1 cup apple cider vinegar (starts out sweet but this gives it a real kick once it's cooked all the way), red pepper flakes, garlic and sea salt. Throw it all in the crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours. Except...it actually took about 12 hours...but whose counting! Lol. It turned out great, although I usually like it a little more spicy then it came out.
The orange chicken recipe I is supposed to have coconut flour for the frying base, but I didn't have any, so I substituted flax meal instead. That is good and bad. The flax meal turned dark when frying (in coconut oil), so it looks like burned chunks of chicken rather than what you normally see. One advantage to cooking Paleo is that you realize that Paleo-adapted food rarely looks like their non-Paleo versions. The sauce turned out great and it tasted good. I am looking forward to doing it with the coconut flour next time, as the flax meal is a little thick and it has an earthy taste.
The nutty meatloaf really wasn't a stretch from regular meatloaf, so I knew that would turn out ok. At the end of the day you can substitute a variety of things for the bread crumbs normally used in meatloaf - in this case I used....tada!...flax meal! It turned out really good. I think I'll try almond meal or almonds/walnuts that I put through the food processor next time, along with flax seeds.
With any cooking, there are recipes that turn out good and there are recipes that turn out...not so good. The recipe disaster of the day this past Sunday was the jalepeno glazed chicken. The recipe started out so nicely, but my first clue that things were not going to turn out as planned was when the "glaze" didn't thicken in a glaze. It was still very runny, even after simmering for a LONG time. As a result, I proceeded with putting that on the chicken and putting it in the oven. Bad idea. I set the timer and went about my business. JP was the one who went to take it out, and all I saw when I turned the corner to the kitchen was smoke billowing out of the oven. What was supposed to be delicious jalepeno glazed chicken turned out to be...burnt to a crisp chicken. JP was really excited about that one, though, so I may try to tweak that recipe in the coming weeks to see if I can make it work.
The last thing I made this past weekend was on a whim. We went to an apple farm while we were in the mountains a few weekends ago and we bought a bushel of apples. We still have a whole half of the bag left and they are starting to go bad, so I simmered sliced apples in water and cinnamon, ran them through the big daddy blender and we now have homemade apple sauce!
All and all, our first weekend back cooking full Paleo was a success. One advantage to eating Paleo is that, since I started my competition prep Easter weekend, there are 10 times as many recipes online, so I have an endless amount of Paleo recipes to try! And it breaks up the monotony of paring macros, which just gets boring after a while. :)
We are super slammed, so I don't even have the chance to be regular with my gym schedule - some weeks I am able to make it twice and others five times. My strength is good. My endurance is good. I am happy with just going with the flow, and anticipate that I will sit down at the end of this month and actually write out specific goals so I can get back on track with really working in the gym. I anticipate that I have about 4-5 months of "off season" to go until I start competition prep for the spring (depending on what show I decide to do), so it is about time to get back on track with setting goals and being disciplined in the gym. Woohoo!
That is about it to report for now. As I get more structured, I am sure I will have a desire to write more frequently!
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